Multiple 2D histogram on same plot

Question

I have this script to extract data from an image and roi. I have everything working perfectly except the end when I output the graphs. Basically I'm having trouble with the windowing of both histograms. It doesn't matter if I change the gridsize, mincount, figure size, or x and y limits one of the histograms will always be slightly stretched. When I plot them individually they aren't stretched. Is there a way to make the hexagons on the same plot a consistent "non-stretched" shape? Down below is my graph and plotting methods. (I left out my data extraction methods because it was quite specialized).

plt.ion()
plt.figure(figsize=(16,8))
plt.title('2D Histogram of Entorhinal Cortex ROIs')
plt.xlabel(x_inputs) 
plt.ylabel(y_inputs)
colors = ['Reds','Blues']
x = []
y= []
#image extraction code
hist1 = plt.hexbin(x[0],y[0], gridsize=100,cmap='Reds',mincnt=10, alpha=0.35)
hist2 = plt.hexbin(x[1],y[1], gridsize=100,cmap='Blues',mincnt=10, alpha=0.35)
plt.colorbar(hist1, orientation="vertical")
plt.colorbar(hist2, orientation="vertical")
plt.ioff()
plt.show()

enter image description here

Answer 1

This issue can be solved by setting limits for the bins with the extent parameter. This can be done automatically by computing the minimum and maximum x and y values across all the data being plotted. In cases where gridsize is small (e.g. 10), this approach may result in some of the bins being partially outside of the plot limits. If so, setting a margin with plt.margins can help display all the bins within the plot.

import numpy as np               # v 1.20.2
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  # v 3.3.4

# Create a random dataset
rng = np.random.default_rng(seed=123) # random number generator
size = 10000
x1 = rng.normal(loc=5, scale=10, size=size)
y1 = rng.normal(loc=5, scale=2, size=size)
x2 = rng.normal(loc=-30, scale=5, size=size)
y2 = rng.normal(loc=-20, scale=5, size=size)

# Define hexbin grid extent
xmin = min(*x1, *x2)
xmax = max(*x1, *x2)
ymin = min(*y1, *y2)
ymax = max(*y1, *y2)
ext = (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax)

# Draw figure with colorbars
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
hist1 = plt.hexbin(x1, y1, gridsize=30, cmap='Reds', mincnt=10, alpha=0.3, extent=ext)
hist2 = plt.hexbin(x2, y2, gridsize=30, cmap='Blues', mincnt=10, alpha=0.3, extent=ext)
plt.colorbar(hist1, orientation='vertical')
plt.colorbar(hist2, orientation='vertical')
# plt.margins(0.1) # Uncomment this if hex bins are partially outside of plot limits

plt.show()