Matplotlib CapStyle Customization

Introduction

In this lab, we will learn about the CapStyle parameter in Matplotlib. This parameter controls how Matplotlib draws the corners where two different line segments meet. We will go through a step-by-step process to understand the different CapStyle options and how to implement them.

VM Tips

After the VM startup is done, click the top left corner to switch to the Notebook tab to access Jupyter Notebook for practice.

Sometimes, you may need to wait a few seconds for Jupyter Notebook to finish loading. The validation of operations cannot be automated because of limitations in Jupyter Notebook.

If you face issues during learning, feel free to ask Labby. Provide feedback after the session, and we will promptly resolve the problem for you.

Import Libraries

The first step is to import the necessary libraries. We will be using Matplotlib and CapStyle from Matplotlib._enums.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib._enums import CapStyle

Create a Plot

Next, we will create a simple plot to demonstrate the different CapStyle options.

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

## Plotting the line with different CapStyle options
for i, cap_style in enumerate(CapStyle):
    ax.plot([0, 1], [i, i], label=str(cap_style), linewidth=10, solid_capstyle=cap_style)

## Adding legend and title
ax.legend(title='CapStyle')
ax.set_title('CapStyle Demo')

Display the Plot

Now, we will display the plot using the plt.show() function.

plt.show()

Interpretation

After running the code, a plot will be displayed with the different CapStyle options. The following CapStyle options will be displayed:

• CapStyle.butt
• CapStyle.round
• CapStyle.projecting

The butt option is the default style, which simply draws a straight line to the end of the segment. The round option draws a semi-circle at the end of the segment. The projecting option draws a half-square at the end of the segment.

Experiment

Now that we have seen the different CapStyle options, feel free to experiment with other options in the CapStyle parameter to see how they affect the plot.

Summary

In this lab, we learned about the CapStyle parameter in Matplotlib. We went through a step-by-step process to understand the different CapStyle options and how to implement them. We also created a plot to visualize the different CapStyle options.