Contour Label Demo

Illustrate some of the more advanced things that one can do with contour labels.

See also the contour demo example.

import matplotlib
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.ticker as ticker
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Define our surface

delta = 0.025
x = np.arange(-3.0, 3.0, delta)
y = np.arange(-2.0, 2.0, delta)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
Z1 = np.exp(-X**2 - Y**2)
Z2 = np.exp(-(X - 1)**2 - (Y - 1)**2)
Z = (Z1 - Z2) * 2

Make contour labels with custom level formatters

# This custom formatter removes trailing zeros, e.g. "1.0" becomes "1", and
# then adds a percent sign.
def fmt(x):
    s = f"{x:.1f}"
    if s.endswith("0"):
        s = f"{x:.0f}"
    return rf"{s} \%" if plt.rcParams["text.usetex"] else f"{s} %"


# Basic contour plot
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
CS = ax.contour(X, Y, Z)

ax.clabel(CS, CS.levels, inline=True, fmt=fmt, fontsize=10)

Out:

<a list of 7 text.Text objects>

Label contours with arbitrary strings using a dictionary

fig1, ax1 = plt.subplots()

# Basic contour plot
CS1 = ax1.contour(X, Y, Z)

fmt = {}
strs = ['first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth', 'seventh']
for l, s in zip(CS1.levels, strs):
    fmt[l] = s

# Label every other level using strings
ax1.clabel(CS1, CS1.levels[::2], inline=True, fmt=fmt, fontsize=10)

Out:

<a list of 3 text.Text objects>

Use a Formatter

fig2, ax2 = plt.subplots()

CS2 = ax2.contour(X, Y, 100**Z, locator=plt.LogLocator())
fmt = ticker.LogFormatterMathtext()
fmt.create_dummy_axis()
ax2.clabel(CS2, CS2.levels, fmt=fmt)
ax2.set_title("$100^Z$")

plt.show()

---

References

The use of the following functions, methods and classes is shown in this example:

matplotlib.axes.Axes.contour
matplotlib.pyplot.contour
matplotlib.axes.Axes.clabel
matplotlib.pyplot.clabel
matplotlib.ticker.LogFormatterMathtext
matplotlib.ticker.TickHelper.create_dummy_axis

Out:

<function TickHelper.create_dummy_axis at 0x7f5f3e761e50>