CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonmatplotlib
Kurt Peek
Kurt Peek

Reputation: 57451

Save figure with clip box from another figure

Normally if you plot two different figures using the default settings in pyplot, they will be exactly the same size, and if saved can be neatly aligned in PowerPoint or the like. I'd like to generate one figure, however, which has a legend outside of the figure. The script I'm using is shown below.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x=np.linspace(0,1,201)
y1=x**2
y2=np.sin(x)

fig1=plt.figure(1)
plt.plot(x,y1,label='y1')
handles1,labels1=plt.gca().get_legend_handles_labels()
lgd1=plt.gca().legend(handles1,labels1,bbox_to_anchor=(1.27,1),borderaxespad=0.)

fig2=plt.figure(2)
plt.plot(x,y2)

fig1.savefig('fig1',bbox_extra_artists=(lgd1,),bbox_inches='tight')
fig2.savefig('fig2')

plt.show()

The problem is that in PowerPoint, I can no longer align the two figures left and have their axes aligned. Due to the use of the 'extra artists' and 'bbox_inches=tight' arguments for the first figure, the width of its margins becomes different from the second figure.

Is there any way to 'transfer' the clip box from the first figure to the second figure, such that they can be aligned by 'align left' in PowerPoint?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 181

Answers (1)

John Sharp
John Sharp

Reputation: 811

I think an easier way to achieve what you want is to just construct one figure with two subplots, and let matplotlib align everything for you.

Do you think doing something like this is a good idea?

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x=np.linspace(0,1,201)
y1=x**2
y2=np.sin(x)

fig = plt.figure()

a = fig.add_subplot(211)

a.plot(x,y1, label='y1')

lgd1 = a.legend(bbox_to_anchor = (1.27,1), borderaxespad=0.)

a = fig.add_subplot(212)
a.plot(x,y2)

fig.savefig('fig',bbox_extra_artists=(lgd1,),bbox_inches='tight')

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions