Specify subplot size instead of figsize in matplotlib

Question

I am using matplotlib to draw some graphs. Usually, standard practice is to start with a Figure's dimensions and specify the axes' dimensions so that the graph is then scaled to the available space.

However I have a request to extend the height of a graph to accommodate outlying data on the y axis.

I know that I can use Figure.figsize to specify overall dimensions, but this won't keep the the graphs in proportion once a margin has been included. Is there a way to specify the actual subplot size or conversely to determine the margin size for the default margin size and adjust the Figure's dimensions accordingly?

Serenity · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-27 23:13:32Z

2

You mean something like this? You need to calculate margins.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

subplotsize=[5.,5.]
figuresize=[10.,10.]   

left = 0.5*(1.-subplotsize[0]/figuresize[0])
right = 1.-left
bottom = 0.5*(1.-subplotsize[1]/figuresize[1])
top = 1.-bottom
fig=plt.figure(figsize=(figuresize[0],figuresize[1]))
fig.subplots_adjust(left=left,right=right,bottom=bottom,top=top)
ax=fig.add_subplot(111)
plt.show()

answered May 27, 2016 at 23:13

Serenity

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3 Comments

ChrisGuest Over a year ago

That's pretty close to what I wanted. Instead of specifying a fixed value for figuresize=[10.,10.], I did this:

ChrisGuest Over a year ago

margin_left = 1.0; margin_right = 1.0; margin_top = 1.0; margin_bottom = 1.0

ChrisGuest Over a year ago

figuresize = [margin_left + subplotsize[0] + margin_right, margin_top + subplotsize[1] + margin_bottom]

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