Axis Line Styles: Customizing Matplotlib Plots

Introduction

In this lab, we will learn how to configure axis style in Matplotlib. We will be using the mpl_toolkits.axisartist axes classes to add arrows at the ends of each axis and to add X and Y-axis from the origin. We will also hide the borders of the plot.

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Skills Graph

%%%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%%% flowchart RL python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/BasicConceptsGroup(["`Basic Concepts`"]) matplotlib(("`Matplotlib`")) -.-> matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup(["`Basic Concepts`"]) matplotlib(("`Matplotlib`")) -.-> matplotlib/PlottingDataGroup(["`Plotting Data`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/ControlFlowGroup(["`Control Flow`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/DataStructuresGroup(["`Data Structures`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/ModulesandPackagesGroup(["`Modules and Packages`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup(["`Data Science and Machine Learning`"]) python/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> python/comments("`Comments`") matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> matplotlib/importing_matplotlib("`Importing Matplotlib`") matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> matplotlib/figures_axes("`Understanding Figures and Axes`") matplotlib/PlottingDataGroup -.-> matplotlib/line_plots("`Line Plots`") python/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> python/booleans("`Booleans`") python/ControlFlowGroup -.-> python/for_loops("`For Loops`") python/DataStructuresGroup -.-> python/lists("`Lists`") python/DataStructuresGroup -.-> python/tuples("`Tuples`") python/ModulesandPackagesGroup -.-> python/importing_modules("`Importing Modules`") python/ModulesandPackagesGroup -.-> python/using_packages("`Using Packages`") python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup -.-> python/numerical_computing("`Numerical Computing`") python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup -.-> python/data_visualization("`Data Visualization`") subgraph Lab Skills python/comments -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} matplotlib/importing_matplotlib -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} matplotlib/figures_axes -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} matplotlib/line_plots -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/booleans -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/for_loops -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/lists -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/tuples -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/importing_modules -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/using_packages -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/numerical_computing -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} python/data_visualization -.-> lab-48666{{"`Axis Line Styles`"}} end

Import Libraries

We will start by importing the necessary libraries.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from mpl_toolkits.axisartist.axislines import AxesZero

Create Figure and Subplot

Next, we will create a figure and a subplot.

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(axes_class=AxesZero)

Configure Axis Style

We will now configure the axis style by adding arrows at the ends of each axis and adding X and Y-axis from the origin.

for direction in ["xzero", "yzero"]:
    ## adds arrows at the ends of each axis
    ax.axis[direction].set_axisline_style("-|>")
    ## adds X and Y-axis from the origin
    ax.axis[direction].set_visible(True)

## hides borders
for direction in ["left", "right", "bottom", "top"]:
    ax.axis[direction].set_visible(False)

Plot the Graph

We will now plot the graph using np.linspace and np.sin.

x = np.linspace(-0.5, 1., 100)
ax.plot(x, np.sin(x*np.pi))

Display the Graph

Finally, we will display the graph using plt.show().

plt.show()

Summary

In this lab, we learned how to configure axis style in Matplotlib. We used the mpl_toolkits.axisartist axes classes to add arrows at the ends of each axis and to add X and Y-axis from the origin. We also hid the borders of the plot.