matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolorfast#

Axes.pcolorfast(*args, alpha=None, norm=None, cmap=None, vmin=None, vmax=None, data=None, **kwargs)[source]#

Create a pseudocolor plot with a non-regular rectangular grid.

Call signature:

ax.pcolorfast([X, Y], C, /, **kwargs)

This method is similar to pcolor and pcolormesh. It's designed to provide the fastest pcolor-type plotting with the Agg backend. To achieve this, it uses different algorithms internally depending on the complexity of the input grid (regular rectangular, non-regular rectangular or arbitrary quadrilateral).

Warning

This method is experimental. Compared to pcolor or pcolormesh it has some limitations:

  • It supports only flat shading (no outlines)

  • It lacks support for log scaling of the axes.

  • It does not have a pyplot wrapper.

Parameters:
Carray-like

The image data. Supported array shapes are:

  • (M, N): an image with scalar data. Color-mapping is controlled by cmap, norm, vmin, and vmax.

  • (M, N, 3): an image with RGB values (0-1 float or 0-255 int).

  • (M, N, 4): an image with RGBA values (0-1 float or 0-255 int), i.e. including transparency.

The first two dimensions (M, N) define the rows and columns of the image.

This parameter can only be passed positionally.

X, Ytuple or array-like, default: (0, N), (0, M)

X and Y are used to specify the coordinates of the quadrilaterals. There are different ways to do this:

  • Use tuples X=(xmin, xmax) and Y=(ymin, ymax) to define a uniform rectangular grid.

    The tuples define the outer edges of the grid. All individual quadrilaterals will be of the same size. This is the fastest version.

  • Use 1D arrays X, Y to specify a non-uniform rectangular grid.

    In this case X and Y have to be monotonic 1D arrays of length N+1 and M+1, specifying the x and y boundaries of the cells.

    The speed is intermediate. Note: The grid is checked, and if found to be uniform the fast version is used.

  • Use 2D arrays X, Y if you need an arbitrary quadrilateral grid (i.e. if the quadrilaterals are not rectangular).

    In this case X and Y are 2D arrays with shape (M + 1, N + 1), specifying the x and y coordinates of the corners of the colored quadrilaterals.

    This is the most general, but the slowest to render. It may produce faster and more compact output using ps, pdf, and svg backends, however.

These arguments can only be passed positionally.

cmapstr or Colormap, default: rcParams["image.cmap"] (default: 'viridis')

The Colormap instance or registered colormap name used to map scalar data to colors.

This parameter is ignored if C is RGB(A).

normstr or Normalize, optional

The normalization method used to scale scalar data to the [0, 1] range before mapping to colors using cmap. By default, a linear scaling is used, mapping the lowest value to 0 and the highest to 1.

If given, this can be one of the following:

This parameter is ignored if C is RGB(A).

vmin, vmaxfloat, optional

When using scalar data and no explicit norm, vmin and vmax define the data range that the colormap covers. By default, the colormap covers the complete value range of the supplied data. It is an error to use vmin/vmax when a norm instance is given (but using a str norm name together with vmin/vmax is acceptable).

This parameter is ignored if C is RGB(A).

alphafloat, default: None

The alpha blending value, between 0 (transparent) and 1 (opaque).

snapbool, default: False

Whether to snap the mesh to pixel boundaries.

Returns:
AxesImage or PcolorImage or QuadMesh

The return type depends on the type of grid:

Other Parameters:
dataindexable object, optional

If given, all parameters also accept a string s, which is interpreted as data[s] (unless this raises an exception).

**kwargs

Supported additional parameters depend on the type of grid. See return types of image for further description.

Examples using matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolorfast#

Pcolor Demo

Pcolor Demo

Pcolor Demo