.. _navigation-toolbar: Interactive navigation ====================== .. image:: ../_static/toolbar.png All figure windows come with a navigation toolbar, which can be used to navigate through the data set. Here is a description of each of the buttons at the bottom of the toolbar .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/home.png .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/back.png .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/forward.png The ``Forward`` and ``Back`` buttons These are akin to the web browser forward and back buttons. They are used to navigate back and forth between previously defined views. They have no meaning unless you have already navigated somewhere else using the pan and zoom buttons. This is analogous to trying to click ``Back`` on your web browser before visiting a new page --nothing happens. ``Home`` always takes you to the first, default view of your data. For ``Home``, ``Forward`` and ``Back``, think web browser where data views are web pages. Use the pan and zoom to rectangle to define new views. .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/move.png The ``Pan/Zoom`` button This button has two modes: pan and zoom. Click the toolbar button to activate panning and zooming, then put your mouse somewhere over an axes. Press the left mouse button and hold it to pan the figure, dragging it to a new position. When you release it, the data under the point where you pressed will be moved to the point where you released. If you press 'x' or 'y' while panning the motion will be constrained to the x or y axis, respectively. Press the right mouse button to zoom, dragging it to a new position. The x axis will be zoomed in proportionate to the rightward movement and zoomed out proportionate to the leftward movement. Ditto for the y axis and up/down motions. The point under your mouse when you begin the zoom remains stationary, allowing you to zoom to an arbitrary point in the figure. You can use the modifier keys 'x', 'y' or 'CONTROL' to constrain the zoom to the x axis, the y axis, or aspect ratio preserve, respectively. With polar plots, the pan and zoom functionality behaves differently. The radius axis labels can be dragged using the left mouse button. The radius scale can be zoomed in and out using the right mouse button. .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/zoom_to_rect.png The ``Zoom-to-rectangle`` button Click this toolbar button to activate this mode. Put your mouse somewhere over and axes and press the left mouse button. Drag the mouse while holding the button to a new location and release. The axes view limits will be zoomed to the rectangle you have defined. There is also an experimental 'zoom out to rectangle' in this mode with the right button, which will place your entire axes in the region defined by the zoom out rectangle. .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/subplots.png The ``Subplot-configuration`` button Use this tool to configure the parameters of the subplot: the left, right, top, bottom, space between the rows and space between the columns. .. image:: ../../lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/images/filesave.png The ``Save`` button Click this button to launch a file save dialog. You can save files with the following extensions: ``png``, ``ps``, ``eps``, ``svg`` and ``pdf``. .. _key-event-handling: Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts ----------------------------- The following table holds all the default keys, which can be overwritten by use of your matplotlibrc (#keymap.\*). ================================== ================================================= Command Keyboard Shortcut(s) ================================== ================================================= Home/Reset **h** or **r** or **home** Back **c** or **left arrow** or **backspace** Forward **v** or **right arrow** Pan/Zoom **p** Zoom-to-rect **o** Save **ctrl** + **s** Toggle fullscreen **ctrl** + **f** Close plot **ctrl** + **w** Constrain pan/zoom to x axis hold **x** when panning/zooming with mouse Constrain pan/zoom to y axis hold **y** when panning/zooming with mouse Preserve aspect ratio hold **CONTROL** when panning/zooming with mouse Toggle grid **g** when mouse is over an axes Toggle x axis scale (log/linear) **L** or **k** when mouse is over an axes Toggle y axis scale (log/linear) **l** when mouse is over an axes ================================== ================================================= If you are using :mod:`matplotlib.pyplot` the toolbar will be created automatically for every figure. If you are writing your own user interface code, you can add the toolbar as a widget. The exact syntax depends on your UI, but we have examples for every supported UI in the ``matplotlib/examples/user_interfaces`` directory. Here is some example code for GTK:: from matplotlib.figure import Figure from matplotlib.backends.backend_gtkagg import FigureCanvasGTKAgg as FigureCanvas from matplotlib.backends.backend_gtkagg import NavigationToolbar2GTKAgg as NavigationToolbar win = gtk.Window() win.connect("destroy", lambda x: gtk.main_quit()) win.set_default_size(400,300) win.set_title("Embedding in GTK") vbox = gtk.VBox() win.add(vbox) fig = Figure(figsize=(5,4), dpi=100) ax = fig.add_subplot(111) ax.plot([1,2,3]) canvas = FigureCanvas(fig) # a gtk.DrawingArea vbox.pack_start(canvas) toolbar = NavigationToolbar(canvas, win) vbox.pack_start(toolbar, False, False) win.show_all() gtk.main()