Annotation does not appear in matplotlib plot

Question

The annotation "test" displays if I run the following code:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.figure()
ax = plt.gca()
ax.annotate("Test", xy=(0.2, 0.2))

However, the exact same code will not display the annotation if I call plt.plot() instead of plt.figure():

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot()
ax = plt.gca()
ax.annotate("Test", xy=(0.2, 0.2))

Why does the second code block not show the annotation?

I see the annotation with both code blocks when calling plt.show() at the end. Are you using an interactive environment? — Hooked
– Hooked, Commented Jan 6, 2014 at 18:26
matplotlib.backends.backend returns 'Qt4Agg'. matplotlib.is_interactive() returns True. Adding plt.show() at the end still leaves the annotation as not displayed for me. — Michael B. Currie
– Michael B. Currie, Commented Jan 6, 2014 at 18:31
I still can't reproduce the problem with either TkAgg or Qt4Agg, version 1.2.1 on Linux but I get matplotlib.is_interactive()==False with the default setup. Perhaps it is something to do with interactive mode? — Hooked
– Hooked, Commented Jan 6, 2014 at 18:39
On my machine, simply calling figure() sets xlim and ylim to [0,1] in the first example with the text within the domain, while in the second example the annotated test is outside the xlim and ylim, that are set to [-.06,.06]. Is this your problem? — gg349
– gg349, Commented Jan 6, 2014 at 18:55

Michael B. Currie · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-06 20:05:57Z

6

In the first example, calling figure() sets xlim and ylim to [0,1] with the text within the domain, at [.2,.2].

In the second example the annotated test is outside the xlim and ylim. They are set automatically to [-.06,.06] (at least on my machine).

In the second example, simply invoke

ax.set_xlim(-.4,.4)
ax.set_xlim(-.4,.4)

and the annotation will appear in the figure.

Michael B. Currie

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answered Jan 6, 2014 at 19:04

gg349

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