CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonmatplotliblatex
FooBar
FooBar

Reputation: 16518

Matplotlib and latex beamer: Correct size

There were several questions asked about the integration of matplotlib/Python and latex, but I couldn't find the following:

When I include the savefig() created pdf files in latex, I always to

includegraphics[scale=0.5]{myFile.pdf}

And the scale is usually around 0.4 or 0.5. Given that I'm creating A5 beamer slides, what is the correct way to generate pdf files in the correct size for that, such that I don't need to specify that in latex?

Note that these are not full-size image-only beamer slides, it needs to be somewhat smaller to allow header,footer and caption.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 4343

Answers (2)

rth
rth

Reputation: 11199

See this matplotlib cookbook for creating publication quality plots for Latex. Essentially, in order to keep a constant size of all figure attributes (legend, etc) scaling when importing figures in latex should be avoided. The proposed approach is the following,

  1. Find the line width of your Latex document in pixels. This can be done, temporarily inserting somewhere in your document, \showthe\columnwidth

  2. Define a helper functions in python that will be used to compute the figure size,

      def get_figsize(columnwidth, wf=0.5, hf=(5.**0.5-1.0)/2.0, ):
      """Parameters:
        - wf [float]:  width fraction in columnwidth units
        - hf [float]:  height fraction in columnwidth units.
                       Set by default to golden ratio.
        - columnwidth [float]: width of the column in latex. Get this from LaTeX 
                               using \showthe\columnwidth
      Returns:  [fig_width,fig_height]: that should be given to matplotlib
      """
      fig_width_pt = columnwidth*wf 
      inches_per_pt = 1.0/72.27               # Convert pt to inch
      fig_width = fig_width_pt*inches_per_pt  # width in inches
      fig_height = fig_width*hf      # height in inches
      return [fig_width, fig_height]

  3. Figures are then produced with,

     import matplotlib
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 # make sure that some matplotlib parameters are identical for all figures
 params = {'backend': 'Agg',
           'axes.labelsize': 10,
           'text.fontsize': 10 } # extend as needed
 matplotlib.rcParams.update(params)

 # set figure size as a fraction of the columnwidth
 columnwidth = # value given by Latex
 fig = plt.figure(figsize=get_figsize(columnwidth, wf=1.0, hf=0.3)
 # make the plot
 fig.savefig("myFigure.pdf")

  4. Finally this figure is imported in Latex without any scaling,

    \includegraphics{myFigure.pdf}

    thus ensuring, among other things, that, say, a 12pt text in matplotlib corresponds to the same font size in the Latex document.

Upvotes: 5

Beachcomber
Beachcomber

Reputation: 371

You'd be better off specifying the absolute size of image that you want, rather than the scale. (You could specify height, if that's more convenient, and can use cm as units)

\includegraphics[height=4in]{myFile.pdf}

Better yet, define a macro that inserts your images. Here's one that inserts an image without wrapping it in a figure (which includes a caption, padding space, etc.)

\newcommand{\plotstandard}[1]{\centerline{\includegraphics[height=4in]{#1}}}

which is called using

\plotstandard{myFile.pdf}

Upvotes: 0

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