MPL Plotter

MPL Plotter is a Matplotlib based Python plotting library built with the goal of delivering publication-quality plots concisely. The full API documentation is available here. Read on to get started.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Install

3. Map of the library

4. Getting started

4.1 2D

4.2 3D

5. comparison and panes

5.1 comparison

5.2 panes

6. Presets

6.1 Standard presets

6.2 Custom presets_

7. Matplotlib compatibility

7.1 Retrieving axes, figures

7.2 Using Matplotlib's axis tiling

1. Introduction

Making plots for technical documents can be a time sink. MPL Plotter aims to reduce that overhead by allowing you to effortlessly and concisely

• Generate publication quality plots with a single call
• Plot curve comparisons
• Create figures with many plots

It is opinionated but built with flexibility in mind, which means that

• No default can't be changed
• Any and all further customization with Matplotlib is compatible. From ticks to legends to extra axes to whatever suits your needs

There's two ways to use MPL Plotter (plus any Matplotlib before or after):

• Calls to the 2D and 3D plotting classes
• Using presets, either those shipped with the library, or custom ones

It does the job for me and I expand it when it can't. Hope you find some use in it!

2. Install

pip install mpl_plotter

All dependencies will be checked for and installed automatically. They can be found in setup.py under install_requires.

Linux

PyQt5 may fail to install in Linux, prompting the following error:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/pip-build-4d8suz7p/PyQt5/setup.py'

To solve this, make sure pip is up to date and install PyQt5 5.14.0. Check this StackOverflow answer for further reference.

pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install pyqt5==5.14.0

3. Map of the library

This is the map of the library for import reference.

• mpl_plotter
  • figure
  • get_available_fonts
  • two_d
    • line
    • scatter
    • heatmap
    • quiver
    • streamline
    • fill_area
    • comparison
    • panes
    • floating_text
  • three_d
    • line
    • scatter
    • surface
    • floating_text
  • presets
    • publication
      • two_d
      • three_d
    • precision
      • two_d
      • three_d
    • custom
      • two_d
      • three_d
      • generate_preset_2d
      • generate_preset_3d
    • data/
      • publication
      • precision
  • color
    • schemes
      • colorscheme_one
      • custom
    • functions
      • complementary
      • delta
      • mapstack

4. Getting started

In this section we'll go from the the most basic plot to a fairly customized version in 2 and 3 dimensions. The line demo scripts can be found in _demo/scripts/line_demos/.

4.1 2D

For this example I'll use the 2D line class. Except for plot-specific arguments (line width etc. in this case), you can use the same inputs in this example with any of the other 2D plotting classes. Check the API reference for all general and specific arguments, or call help( ) in your shell to access the docstrings.

As follows from the map above, the import to use the 2D line class is:

from mpl_plotter.two_d import line

And the following is the most basic MPL Plotter call, which will generate the image below (no input, and sin wave respectively).

line(show=True)	x = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 100) y = np.sin(x) line(x=x, y=y, show=True)

Two important features are apparent:

1. MPL Plotter provides mock plots for every plotting class, so you can get straight into action and see what each does
2. MPL Plotter is somewhat "opinionated" and sets up quite a few parameters by default. This is based purely on my preference. You may not agree and you're more than welcome to play around with them!

Two more examples (results in the table below):

1. We can add some customization to make our line look a bit better:

    line(show=True, demo_pad_plot=True, spines_removed=None)
   

   Our line has now some margins to breathe while the ticks are placed at the maximum and minimums of our curve, and no spines are removed.

2. Lastly, an example using some of the parameters you can change:

    line(norm=True, line_width=4,
         aspect=1,
         show=True, demo_pad_plot=True,
         x_label="x", x_label_size=30, x_label_pad=-0.05,
         y_label="$\Psi$", y_label_size=30, y_label_rotation=0, y_label_pad=20,
         title="Custom Line", title_font="Pump Triline", title_size=40, title_color="orange",
         tick_color="darkgrey", workspace_color="darkred", tick_ndecimals=4,
         x_tick_number=12, y_tick_number=12,
         x_tick_rotation=35,
         color_bar=True, cb_tick_number=5, cb_pad=0.05,
         grid=True, grid_color="grey")
   

1	2

4.2 3D

Same applies in 3D.

	Examples

5. Curve comparisons and multiple pane plots

from mpl_plotter.two_d import comparison, panes

5.1 comparison

Plot any number of curves in a single plot. Axis limits will be set to the maximum and minimum of all your curves. No data will be left out, among other niceties.

As to inputs: inputs must match (2 xs and 3 ys won't work), BUT the following inputs are all valid:

As to using different plotting functions for different curves:

• You can specify a plotting function for each curve in the plot, a custom one for all curves, or not specify any (defaulting to lines). How? Read below (or check the code block below that). This is nice as it allows to concisely combine lines, scatter plots, and any other of the MPL Plotter plotting classes in a single.

As any and all other arguments:

• Singular arguments: the regular MPL Plotter plotting class arguments. Apply to all curves in the plot.
• Plural arguments: pass a list of arguments, one for each curve. The result is as you'd imagine.

from mpl_plotter.two_d import comparison, line, scatter
        
def f(x, y, **kwargs):
    line(x, y,
         line_width=2,
         **kwargs)
def g(x, y, **kwargs):
    scatter(x, y,
            marker="D",
            point_size=10,
            **kwargs)
def h(x, y, **kwargs):
    scatter(x, y,
            marker="s",
            point_size=5,
            **kwargs)

comparison([x, x, x],
           [u, v, w],
           [f, g, h],
           plot_labels=["sin", "cos", "tan"],
           zorders=[1, 2, 3],
           colors=['C1', 'C2', 'C3'],
           alphas=[0.5, 0.5, 1],
           x_custom_tick_labels=[0, r"$\frac{\pi}{8}$", r"$\frac{\pi}{4}$"],
           show=show, backend=backend
           )

5.2 panes

The panes function allows for the plotting of a series of graphs in side-by-side panes. It uses the comparison function under the hood, so the same input guidelines apply. Inputs obviously change.

As to inputs: again inputs must match (again 2 xs and 3 ys won't work), BUT the following inputs are all valid:

Code

The following plots one curve per pane (3 in total):

panes(x,                   # Horizontal vector
      [u, v, y],           # List of curves to be plotted
      ["u", "v", "y"],     # List of vertical axis labels
      ["a", "b", "c"]      # List of legend labels 
      )

And the following plots an arbitrary number of curves per pane. As you can see, you just need to input n lists of m curves (where m=2 in the example below), and you will get a plot with n panes, with m curves in each.

    panes(x,                               # Horizontal vector
          [[u, uu], [v, vv], [y, yy]],     # List of pairs of curves to be compared
          ["u", "v", "y"],                 # List of vertical axis labels
          ["a", "b"]                       # List of legend labels
          )

Demo

And same goes for n panes with a number m of curves in each!

6. Presets

TL;DR: Take a parameter dictionary and forget about function inputs.

6.1 Standard presets

Standard presets are available to remove overhead. They're tailored for my use cases but may be useful anyway.

Publication

It is a common mistake to make a figure for a paper with unreadable labels. This preset tries to solve that, generating plots optimized to be printed on a small format, in side-by-side plots or embedded in a column of text.

from mpl_plotter.presets.precision import two_d
from mpl_plotter.color.schemes import one           # Custom colorscheme

x = np.linspace(0, 4, 1000)
y = np.exp(x)
z = abs(np.sin(x)*np.exp(x))

two_d.line(x, z, aspect=0.05, color=one()[-2], show=True)

Precision

Made to plot functions large on the screen, with equal x and y scales to avoid skewing the variables, and many ticks to visually inspect a signal.

from mpl_plotter.presets.precision import two_d

two_d.line(x, z, aspect=0.05, color=one()[-2], show=True)

6.2 Custom presets

Example workflow follows.

2D
3D

1. Use a preset creation function (generate_preset_2d or generate_preset_3d) to create a preset

    from mpl_plotter.presets.custom import generate_preset_2d
    
    generate_preset_2d(preset_dest="presets", preset_name="MYPRESET", disable_warning=True, overwrite=True)
   

   A MYPRESET.py file will be created in a new (or not) presets/ directory within your project's root directory.

   • If no preset_dest is provided, MYPRESET.py will be saved in your root directory.
   • If no preset_name is provided, the preset will be saved as preset_2d.py.
   • By setting disable_warning=True, console output reminding you of the risk of rewriting your preset will be suppressed.
   • By setting overwrite=True, every time your run the preset creation function, it will overwrite the previously created preset with the same name (rather inconvenient, but who knows when it can come in handy).

   This file has a preset dictionary inside, with all editable parameters inside it, and commented out. Eg:

    preset = { 
        # Basic 
        # "plot_label": None, 
        # Backend 
        # "backend": "Qt5Agg", 
        # Fonts 
        # "font": "serif",
        ...
    }
   

   By uncommenting certain lines, those parameters will be read and used to shape your plots.

2. Modify MYPRESET.py according to your needs.

3. Import mpl_plotter.presets.custom.two_d (or three_d if working with a 3D preset) and initiate it with MYPRESET

   my_preset_scatter = my_plot_family.scatter ">

    from mpl_plotter.presets.custom import two_d
    
    my_preset_plot_family = two_d(preset_dir="presets", preset_name="MYPRESET")
    
    my_preset_line = my_plot_family.line
    
    # You can create further plotting classes spawning from my_preset_plot_family:
    # Eg        --->        my_preset_scatter = my_plot_family.scatter
   

4. Call a plotting function child of two_d, setting any extra parameters appropriately (plot title, etc.)

    my_preset_line(show=True, demo_pad_plot=True, color="blue", title="TITLE", title_size=200, aspect=1)
   

   The result of this example, its 3D version, and demos for all other available 2D and 3D plots can be seen in the table at the beginning of the section.

5. Make as many plots as you wish.

7. Matplotlib compatibility

7.1 Retrieving axes, figures

The axis and figure on which each class draws are instance attributes. To retrieve them and continue modifications using standard Matplotlib:

from mpl_plotter.two_d import line

my_plot = line()
ax, fig = my_plot.ax, my_plot.fig

With the axis and figure, most Matplotlib functions out there can be used to further modify your plots.

7.2 Using Matplotlib's axis tiling

Matplotlib allows for subplot composition using subplot2grid. This can be used in combination with MPL Plotter:

Importantly:

• The auxiliary function figure (from mpl_plotter.setup import figure) sets up a figure in a chosen backend. This is convenient, as if the figure is created with plt.figure(), only the default non-interactive Matplotlib backend will be available, unless matplotlib.use( ) is specified before importing pyplot.

  regular non-interactive matplotlib output fig = figure(figsize=(10, 10), backend=backend) ax0 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (0, 0), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig) ax1 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (1, 0), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig) ax2 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (0, 1), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig) ax3 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (1, 1), rowspan=1, aspect=12, fig=fig) axes = [ax0, ax1, ax2, ax3] plots = [line, quiver, streamline, fill_area] for i in range(len(plots)): plots[i](fig=fig, ax=axes[i], backend=backend ) plt.show() ">

    backend = "Qt5Agg"  # None -> regular non-interactive matplotlib output
    
    fig = figure(figsize=(10, 10), backend=backend)
    
    ax0 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (0, 0), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig)
    ax1 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (1, 0), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig)
    ax2 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (0, 1), rowspan=1, aspect=1, fig=fig)
    ax3 = plt.subplot2grid((2, 2), (1, 1), rowspan=1, aspect=12, fig=fig)
    
    axes = [ax0, ax1, ax2, ax3]
    plots = [line, quiver, streamline, fill_area]
    
    for i in range(len(plots)):
        plots[i](fig=fig, ax=axes[i],
                 backend=backend
                 )
    
    plt.show()
  

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