Contour Label Demo#

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

See also the contour demo example.

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)
contour label demo

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)
contour label demo

Use a Formatter

$100^Z$

Total running time of the script: ( 0 minutes 1.475 seconds)

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