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<!DOCTYPE html>

<head>

<title>Text in Matplotlib Plots — Matplotlib 3.7.5 documentation</title>

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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../intermediate/imshow_extent.html">origin and extent in <code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">imshow</code></a></li>

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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colormap-manipulation.html">Creating Colormaps in Matplotlib</a></li>

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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colormaps.html">Choosing Colormaps in Matplotlib</a></li>

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<li class="toctree-l2 current active"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Text in Matplotlib Plots</a></li>

<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="text_props.html">Text properties and layout</a></li>

<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="annotations.html">Annotations</a></li>

<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="mathtext.html">Writing mathematical expressions</a></li>

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Note

to download the full example code

</div>

<h1>Text in Matplotlib Plots<a class="headerlink" href="#text-in-matplotlib-plots" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h1>

Introduction to plotting and working with text in Matplotlib.

Matplotlib has extensive text support, including support for

mathematical expressions, truetype support for raster and

vector outputs, newline separated text with arbitrary

rotations, and Unicode support.

Because it embeds fonts directly in output documents, e.g., for postscript

or PDF, what you see on the screen is what you get in the hardcopy.

<a class="reference external" href="https://www.freetype.org/">FreeType</a> support

produces very nice, antialiased fonts, that look good even at small

raster sizes. Matplotlib includes its own

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#module-matplotlib.font_manager" title="matplotlib.font_manager"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.font_manager</code></a> (thanks to Paul Barrett), which

implements a cross platform, <a class="reference external" href="https://www.w3.org/">W3C</a>

compliant font finding algorithm.

The user has a great deal of control over text properties (font size, font

weight, text location and color, etc.) with sensible defaults set in

the <a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/customizing.html">rc file</a>.

And significantly, for those interested in mathematical

or scientific figures, Matplotlib implements a large number of TeX

math symbols and commands, supporting <a class="reference internal" href="mathtext.html">mathematical expressions</a> anywhere in your figure.

<h2>Basic text commands<a class="headerlink" href="#basic-text-commands" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

The following commands are used to create text in the implicit and explicit

interfaces (see <a class="reference internal" href="../../users/explain/api_interfaces.html#api-interfaces">Matplotlib Application Interfaces (APIs)</a> for an explanation of the tradeoffs):

<thead>

<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">implicit API</th>

<th class="head">explicit API</th>

<th class="head">description</th>

</tr>

</thead>

<tbody>

<td>Add text at an arbitrary location of

the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Axes</code></a>.</td>

</tr>

<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.annotate.html#matplotlib.pyplot.annotate" title="matplotlib.pyplot.annotate"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">annotate</code></a></td>

<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">annotate</code></a></td>

<td>Add an annotation, with an optional

arrow, at an arbitrary location of the

</tr>

<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel.html#matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel" title="matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">xlabel</code></a></td>

<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_xlabel</code></a></td>

<td>Add a label to the

</tr>

<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel.html#matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel" title="matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">ylabel</code></a></td>

<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_ylabel</code></a></td>

<td>Add a label to the

</tr>

<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.title.html#matplotlib.pyplot.title" title="matplotlib.pyplot.title"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">title</code></a></td>

<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_title</code></a></td>

<td>Add a title to the

</tr>

<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.figtext.html#matplotlib.pyplot.figtext" title="matplotlib.pyplot.figtext"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">figtext</code></a></td>

<td>Add text at an arbitrary location of

the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Figure</code></a>.</td>

</tr>

<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle.html#matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle" title="matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">suptitle</code></a></td>

<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">suptitle</code></a></td>

<td>Add a title to the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Figure</code></a>.</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

All of these functions create and return a <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/text_api.html#matplotlib.text.Text" title="matplotlib.text.Text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Text</code></a> instance, which can be

configured with a variety of font and other properties. The example below

shows all of these commands in action, and more detail is provided in the

sections that follow.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>import matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax</a> = <a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.add_subplot</a>()

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(top=0.85)

# Set titles for the figure and the subplot respectively

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.suptitle</a>('bold figure suptitle', fontsize=14, fontweight='bold')

# Set both x- and y-axis limits to [0, 10] instead of default [0, 1]

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.axis.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.axis" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.axis" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.axis</a>([0, 10, 0, 10])

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.text.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.text</a>(3, 8, 'boxed italics text in data coords', style='italic',

bbox={'facecolor': 'red', 'alpha': 0.5, 'pad': 10})

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.text.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.text</a>(2, 6, r'an equation: $E=mc^2$', fontsize=15)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.text.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.text</a>(3, 2, 'Unicode: Institut für Festkörperphysik')

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.text.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.text</a>(0.95, 0.01, 'colored text in axes coords',

verticalalignment='bottom', horizontalalignment='right',

transform=<a href="../../api/transformations.html#matplotlib.transforms.BboxTransformTo" title="matplotlib.transforms.BboxTransformTo" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-transforms sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax.transAxes</a>,

color='green', fontsize=15)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.annotate</a>('annotate', xy=(2, 1), xytext=(3, 4),

arrowprops=dict(facecolor='black', shrink=0.05))

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="matplotlib.pyplot.show" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.show</a>()

</pre></div>

</div>

<h2>Labels for x- and y-axis<a class="headerlink" href="#labels-for-x-and-y-axis" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

Specifying the labels for the x- and y-axis is straightforward, via the

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_xlabel</code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_ylabel</code></a>

methods.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import numpy as np

<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">y1</a> = <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ufunc.html#numpy.ufunc" title="numpy.ufunc" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">np.cos</a>(2 * <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#float" title="builtins.float" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">np.pi</a> * <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>) * <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ufunc.html#numpy.ufunc" title="numpy.ufunc" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">np.exp</a>(-<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>)

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(figsize=(5, 3))

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.15, left=0.2)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.plot</a>(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">y1</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_002.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_002.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_002_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>The x- and y-labels are automatically placed so that they clear the x- and

y-ticklabels. Compare the plot below with that above, and note the y-label

is to the left of the one above.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(figsize=(5, 3))

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.15, left=0.2)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_003.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_003.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_003_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>If you want to move the labels, you can specify the labelpad keyword

argument, where the value is points (1/72", the same unit used to specify

fontsizes).

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.15, left=0.2)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_004.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_004.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_004_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>Or, the labels accept all the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/text_api.html#matplotlib.text.Text" title="matplotlib.text.Text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Text</code></a> keyword arguments, including

position, via which we can manually specify the label positions. Here we

put the xlabel to the far left of the axis. Note, that the y-coordinate of

this position has no effect - to adjust the y-position we need to use the

labelpad keyword argument.

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.15, left=0.2)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.set_xlabel</a>('Time [s]', position=(0., 1e6), horizontalalignment='left')

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_005.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_005.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_005_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>All the labelling in this tutorial can be changed by manipulating the

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties</code></a> method, or by named keyword

arguments to <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">set_xlabel</code></a>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>from matplotlib.font_manager import <a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">FontProperties</a>

<a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">font</a> = <a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">FontProperties</a>()

<a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_family" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_family" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">font.set_family</a>('serif')

<a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_name" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_name" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">font.set_name</a>('Times New Roman')

<a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_style" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.set_style" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">font.set_style</a>('italic')

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.15, left=0.2)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.set_xlabel</a>('Time [s]', fontsize='large', fontweight='bold')

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.set_ylabel</a>('Damped oscillation [V]', fontproperties=<a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-font_manager sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">font</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_006.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_006.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_006_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>Finally, we can use native TeX rendering in all text objects and have

multiple lines:

<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">fig.subplots_adjust</a>(bottom=0.2, left=0.2)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.plot</a>(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.cumsum.html#numpy.cumsum" title="numpy.cumsum" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">np.cumsum</a>(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">y1</a>**2))

</pre></div>

</div>

<h2>Titles<a class="headerlink" href="#titles" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

Subplot titles are set in much the same way as labels, but there is

the loc keyword arguments that can change the position and justification

from the default value of <code class="docutils literal notranslate">loc=center</code>.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(3, 1, figsize=(5, 6), tight_layout=True)

for <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax</a>, <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str" title="builtins.str" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">loc</a> in zip(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a>, <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#list" title="builtins.list" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locs</a>):

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.set_title</a>('Title with loc at '+<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str" title="builtins.str" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">loc</a>, <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str" title="builtins.str" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">loc</a>=<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str" title="builtins.str" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">loc</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_008.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_008.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_008_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="Title with loc at center, Title with loc at left, Title with loc at right" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>Vertical spacing for titles is controlled via <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/customizing.html?highlight=axes.titlepad#matplotlibrc-sample">rcParams["axes.titlepad"]</a></code> (default: <code class="docutils literal notranslate">6.0</code>).

Setting to a different value moves the title.

</pre></div>

</div>

<h2>Ticks and ticklabels<a class="headerlink" href="#ticks-and-ticklabels" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

Placing ticks and ticklabels is a very tricky aspect of making a figure.

Matplotlib does its best to accomplish the task automatically, but it also

offers a very flexible framework for determining the choices for tick

locations, and how they are labelled.

<h3>Terminology<a class="headerlink" href="#terminology" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>

Axes have an <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axis_api.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.axis.Axis</code></a> object for the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">ax.xaxis</code> and

<code class="docutils literal notranslate">ax.yaxis</code> that contain the information about how the labels in the axis

are laid out.

The axis API is explained in detail in the documentation to

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axis_api.html#module-matplotlib.axis" title="matplotlib.axis"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">axis</code></a>.

An Axis object has major and minor ticks. The Axis has

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Axis.set_major_locator</code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_locator.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_locator" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_locator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Axis.set_minor_locator</code></a> methods that use the

data being plotted to determine the location of major and minor ticks. There

are also <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Axis.set_major_formatter</code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_formatter.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_formatter" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_formatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">Axis.set_minor_formatter</code></a> methods

that format the tick labels.

</section>

<h3>Simple ticks<a class="headerlink" href="#simple-ticks" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>

It is often convenient to simply define the

tick values, and sometimes the tick labels, overriding the default

locators and formatters. This is discouraged because it breaks interactive

navigation of the plot. It also can reset the axis limits: note that

the second plot has the ticks we asked for, including ones that are

well outside the automatic view limits.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(2, 1, figsize=(5, 3), tight_layout=True)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_010.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_010.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_010_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>We can of course fix this after the fact, but it does highlight a

weakness of hard-coding the ticks. This example also changes the format

of the ticks:

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(2, 1, figsize=(5, 3), tight_layout=True)

# list comprehension to get all tick labels...

</pre></div>

</div>

<h3>Tick Locators and Formatters<a class="headerlink" href="#tick-locators-and-formatters" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>

Instead of making a list of all the ticklabels, we could have

used <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter</code></a> (new-style <code class="docutils literal notranslate">str.format()</code>

format string) or <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter</code></a> (old-style '%'

format string) and passed it to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate">ax.xaxis</code>. A

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter</code></a> can also be created by passing a

<code class="docutils literal notranslate">str</code> without having to explicitly create the formatter.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(2, 1, figsize=(5, 3), tight_layout=True)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_012.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_012.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_012_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>And of course we could have used a non-default locator to set the

tick locations. Note we still pass in the tick values, but the

x-limit fix used above is not needed.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(2, 1, figsize=(5, 3), tight_layout=True)

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FixedLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.FixedLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.FixedLocator</a>(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ticks</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_013.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_013.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_013_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>The default formatter is the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator</code></a> called as

<code class="docutils literal notranslate">ticker.MaxNLocator(self, nbins='auto', steps=[1, 2, 2.5, 5, 10])</code>

The steps keyword contains a list of multiples that can be used for

tick values. i.e. in this case, 2, 4, 6 would be acceptable ticks,

as would 20, 40, 60 or 0.2, 0.4, 0.6. However, 3, 6, 9 would not be

acceptable because 3 doesn't appear in the list of steps.

<code class="docutils literal notranslate">nbins=auto</code> uses an algorithm to determine how many ticks will

be acceptable based on how long the axis is. The fontsize of the

ticklabel is taken into account, but the length of the tick string

is not (because it's not yet known.) In the bottom row, the

ticklabels are quite large, so we set <code class="docutils literal notranslate">nbins=4</code> to make the

labels fit in the right-hand plot.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">fig</a>, <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs</a> = <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function">plt.subplots</a>(2, 2, figsize=(8, 5), tight_layout=True)

for <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#int" title="builtins.int" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">n</a>, <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">ax</a> in enumerate(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.flatiter.html#numpy.flatiter" title="numpy.flatiter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">axs.flat</a>):

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.plot</a>(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>*10., <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">y1</a>)

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">formatter</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter</a>('%1.1f')

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator</a>(nbins='auto', steps=[1, 4, 10])

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">formatter</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter</a>('%1.5f')

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator</a>(nbins=4)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_014.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_014.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_014_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>Finally, we can specify functions for the formatter using

<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter</code></a>. Further, like

automatically create a <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter</code></a>.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>def formatoddticks(x, pos):

"""Format odd tick positions."""

if x % 2:

return f'{x:1.2f}'

else:

return ''

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a> = <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-ticker sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator</a>(nbins=6)

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axis sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.xaxis.set_major_locator</a>(<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

<h3>Dateticks<a class="headerlink" href="#dateticks" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>

Matplotlib can accept <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime" title="(in Python v3.12)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">datetime.datetime</code></a> and <a class="reference external" href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/arrays.scalars.html#numpy.datetime64" title="(in NumPy v1.26)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">numpy.datetime64</code></a>

objects as plotting arguments. Dates and times require special

formatting, which can often benefit from manual intervention. In

order to help, dates have special Locators and Formatters,

defined in the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#module-matplotlib.dates" title="matplotlib.dates"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.dates</code></a> module.

A simple example is as follows. Note how we have to rotate the

tick labels so that they don't over-run each other.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>import datetime

<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime" title="datetime.datetime" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-datetime sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">base</a> = <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime" title="datetime.datetime" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-datetime sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">datetime.datetime</a>(2017, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1)

<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#list" title="builtins.list" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">time</a> = [<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime" title="datetime.datetime" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-datetime sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">base</a> + <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.timedelta" title="datetime.timedelta" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-datetime sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">datetime.timedelta</a>(days=x) for x in range(len(<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">x1</a>))]

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.tick_params.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.tick_params" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.tick_params" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.tick_params</a>(axis='x', rotation=70)

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_016.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_016.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_016_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="text intro" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/>We can pass a format to <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter</code></a>. Also note that the

29th and the next month are very close together. We can fix this by using

the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">dates.DayLocator</code></a> class, which allows us to specify a list of days of

the month to use. Similar formatters are listed in the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#module-matplotlib.dates" title="matplotlib.dates"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate">matplotlib.dates</code></a>

module.

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>import matplotlib.dates as mdates

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">locator</a> = <a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">mdates.DayLocator</a>(bymonthday=[1, 15])

<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">formatter</a> = <a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class">mdates.DateFormatter</a>('%b %d')

<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter.html#matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter" title="matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axis sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method">ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter</a>(<a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-dates sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance">formatter</a>)

</pre></div>

</div>

</section>

<h2>Legends and Annotations<a class="headerlink" href="#legends-and-annotations" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<li>Legends: <a class="reference internal" href="../intermediate/legend_guide.html">Legend guide</a></li>

<li>Annotations: <a class="reference internal" href="annotations.html">Annotations</a></li>

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</article>

</div>

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Basic text commands

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Labels for x- and y-axis

</a>

</li>

Titles

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Ticks and ticklabels

</a>

Terminology

</a>

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Simple ticks

</a>

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Tick Locators and Formatters

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Dateticks

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