.. _whats-new-3-3-0: ============================================= What's new in Matplotlib 3.3.0 (Jul 16, 2020) ============================================= For a list of all of the issues and pull requests since the last revision, see the :ref:`github-stats`. .. contents:: Table of Contents :depth: 4 .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 4 Figure and Axes creation / management ===================================== Provisional API for composing semantic axes layouts from text or nested lists ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The `.Figure` class has a provisional method to generate complex grids of named `.axes.Axes` based on nested list input or ASCII art: .. plot:: :include-source: axd = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True).subplot_mosaic( [['.', 'histx'], ['histy', 'scat']] ) for k, ax in axd.items(): ax.text(0.5, 0.5, k, ha='center', va='center', fontsize=36, color='darkgrey') or as a string (with single-character Axes labels): .. plot:: :include-source: axd = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True).subplot_mosaic( """ TTE L.E """) for k, ax in axd.items(): ax.text(0.5, 0.5, k, ha='center', va='center', fontsize=36, color='darkgrey') See :ref:`mosaic` for more details and examples. ``GridSpec.subplots()`` ----------------------- The `.GridSpec` class gained a `~.GridSpecBase.subplots` method, so that one can write :: fig.add_gridspec(2, 2, height_ratios=[3, 1]).subplots() as an alternative to :: fig.subplots(2, 2, gridspec_kw={"height_ratios": [3, 1]}) New ``Axes.sharex``, ``Axes.sharey`` methods -------------------------------------------- These new methods allow sharing axes *immediately* after creating them. Note that behavior is indeterminate if axes are not shared immediately after creation. For example, they can be used to selectively link some axes created all together using `~.Figure.subplot_mosaic`:: fig = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True) axd = fig.subplot_mosaic([['.', 'histx'], ['histy', 'scat']], gridspec_kw={'width_ratios': [1, 7], 'height_ratios': [2, 7]}) axd['histx'].sharex(axd['scat']) axd['histy'].sharey(axd['scat']) .. plot:: np.random.seed(0) x = np.random.random(100) * 100 + 20 y = np.random.random(100) * 50 + 25 c = np.random.random(100) - 0.5 fig = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True) axd = fig.subplot_mosaic([['.', 'histx'], ['histy', 'scat']], gridspec_kw={'width_ratios': [1, 7], 'height_ratios': [2, 7]}) axd['histy'].invert_xaxis() axd['histx'].sharex(axd['scat']) axd['histy'].sharey(axd['scat']) im = axd['scat'].scatter(x, y, c=c, cmap='RdBu', picker=True) fig.colorbar(im, orientation='horizontal', ax=axd['scat'], shrink=0.8) axd['histx'].hist(x) axd['histy'].hist(y, orientation='horizontal') tight_layout now supports suptitle ---------------------------------- Previous versions did not consider `.Figure.suptitle`, so it may overlap with other artists after calling `~.Figure.tight_layout`: .. plot:: fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 3) for i, ax in enumerate(axs): ax.plot([1, 2, 3]) ax.set_title(f'Axes {i}') t = fig.suptitle('suptitle') t.set_in_layout(False) fig.tight_layout() From now on, the ``suptitle`` will be considered: .. plot:: fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 3) for i, ax in enumerate(axs): ax.plot([1, 2, 3]) ax.set_title(f'Axes {i}') fig.suptitle('suptitle') fig.tight_layout() Setting axes box aspect ----------------------- It is now possible to set the aspect of an axes box directly via `~.Axes.set_box_aspect`. The box aspect is the ratio between axes height and axes width in physical units, independent of the data limits. This is useful to, e.g., produce a square plot, independent of the data it contains, or to have a non-image plot with the same axes dimensions next to an image plot with fixed (data-)aspect. For use cases check out the :doc:`Axes box aspect ` example. Colors and colormaps ==================== Turbo colormap -------------- Turbo is an improved rainbow colormap for visualization, created by the Google AI team for computer vision and machine learning. Its purpose is to display depth and disparity data. Please see the `Google AI Blog `_ for further details. .. plot:: gradient = np.linspace(0, 1, 256) gradient = np.vstack((gradient, gradient)) cmaps = ['turbo', 'jet', 'gist_rainbow_r', 'hsv_r'] fig, axs = plt.subplots(len(cmaps), constrained_layout=True) for name, ax in zip(cmaps, axs): ax.imshow(gradient, aspect='auto', cmap=plt.get_cmap(name)) ax.set_title(name) ax.set_axis_off() ``colors.BoundaryNorm`` supports *extend* keyword argument ---------------------------------------------------------- `~.colors.BoundaryNorm` now has an *extend* keyword argument, analogous to *extend* in `~.axes.Axes.contourf`. When set to 'both', 'min', or 'max', it maps the corresponding out-of-range values to `~.colors.Colormap` lookup-table indices near the appropriate ends of their range so that the colors for out-of range values are adjacent to, but distinct from, their in-range neighbors. The colorbar inherits the *extend* argument from the norm, so with ``extend='both'``, for example, the colorbar will have triangular extensions for out-of-range values with colors that differ from adjacent in-range colors. .. plot:: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from matplotlib.colors import BoundaryNorm import numpy as np # Make the data dx, dy = 0.05, 0.05 y, x = np.mgrid[slice(1, 5 + dy, dy), slice(1, 5 + dx, dx)] z = np.sin(x) ** 10 + np.cos(10 + y * x) * np.cos(x) z = z[:-1, :-1] # Z roughly varies between -1 and +1. # Color boundary levels range from -0.8 to 0.8, so there are out-of-bounds # areas. levels = [-0.8, -0.5, -0.2, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8] cmap = plt.get_cmap('PiYG') fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, constrained_layout=True, sharex=True) # Before this change: norm = BoundaryNorm(levels, ncolors=cmap.N) im = axs[0].pcolormesh(x, y, z, cmap=cmap, norm=norm) fig.colorbar(im, ax=axs[0], extend='both') axs[0].axis([x.min(), x.max(), y.min(), y.max()]) axs[0].set_title("Colorbar with extend='both'") # With the new keyword: norm = BoundaryNorm(levels, ncolors=cmap.N, extend='both') im = axs[1].pcolormesh(x, y, z, cmap=cmap, norm=norm) fig.colorbar(im, ax=axs[1]) # note that the colorbar is updated accordingly axs[1].axis([x.min(), x.max(), y.min(), y.max()]) axs[1].set_title("BoundaryNorm with extend='both'") plt.show() Text color for legend labels ---------------------------- The text color of legend labels can now be set by passing a parameter ``labelcolor`` to `~.axes.Axes.legend`. The ``labelcolor`` keyword can be: * A single color (either a string or RGBA tuple), which adjusts the text color of all the labels. * A list or tuple, allowing the text color of each label to be set individually. * ``linecolor``, which sets the text color of each label to match the corresponding line color. * ``markerfacecolor``, which sets the text color of each label to match the corresponding marker face color. * ``markeredgecolor``, which sets the text color of each label to match the corresponding marker edge color. .. plot:: options = ['C3', 'linecolor', 'markerfacecolor', 'markeredgecolor'] fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2, constrained_layout=True) for ax, color in zip(axs.flat, options): ax.plot([1, 2, 3], marker='o', color='C0', markerfacecolor='C1', markeredgecolor='C2', linewidth=3, markersize=10, markeredgewidth=3, label='a line') ax.legend(labelcolor=color) ax.set_title(f'labelcolor={color!r}') ax.margins(0.1) Pcolor and Pcolormesh now accept ``shading='nearest'`` and ``'auto'`` --------------------------------------------------------------------- Previously `.axes.Axes.pcolor` and `.axes.Axes.pcolormesh` handled the situation where *x* and *y* have the same (respective) size as *C* by dropping the last row and column of *C*, and *x* and *y* are regarded as the edges of the remaining rows and columns in *C*. However, many users want *x* and *y* centered on the rows and columns of *C*. To accommodate this, ``shading='nearest'`` and ``shading='auto'`` are new allowed strings for the *shading* keyword argument. ``'nearest'`` will center the color on *x* and *y* if *x* and *y* have the same dimensions as *C* (otherwise an error will be thrown). ``shading='auto'`` will choose 'flat' or 'nearest' based on the size of *X*, *Y*, *C*. If ``shading='flat'`` then *X*, and *Y* should have dimensions one larger than *C*. If *X* and *Y* have the same dimensions as *C*, then the previous behavior is used and the last row and column of *C* are dropped, and a DeprecationWarning is emitted. Users can also specify this by the new :rc:`pcolor.shading` in their ``.matplotlibrc`` or via `.rcParams`. See :doc:`pcolormesh ` for examples. Titles, ticks, and labels ========================= Align labels to Axes edges -------------------------- `~.axes.Axes.set_xlabel`, `~.axes.Axes.set_ylabel` and ``ColorbarBase.set_label`` support a parameter ``loc`` for simplified positioning. For the xlabel, the supported values are 'left', 'center', or 'right'. For the ylabel, the supported values are 'bottom', 'center', or 'top'. The default is controlled via :rc:`xaxis.labelposition` and :rc:`yaxis.labelposition`; the Colorbar label takes the rcParam based on its orientation. .. plot:: options = ['left', 'center', 'right'] fig, axs = plt.subplots(len(options), 1, constrained_layout=True) for ax, loc in zip(axs, options): ax.plot([1, 2, 3]) ax.set_xlabel(f'xlabel loc={loc!r}', loc=loc) options = ['bottom', 'center', 'top'] fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, len(options), constrained_layout=True) for ax, loc in zip(axs, options): ax.plot([1, 2, 3]) ax.set_ylabel(f'ylabel loc={loc!r}', loc=loc) Allow tick formatters to be set with str or function inputs ----------------------------------------------------------- `~.Axis.set_major_formatter` and `~.Axis.set_minor_formatter` now accept `str` or function inputs in addition to `~.ticker.Formatter` instances. For a `str` a `~.ticker.StrMethodFormatter` is automatically generated and used. For a function a `~.ticker.FuncFormatter` is automatically generated and used. In other words, :: ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter('{x} km') ax.xaxis.set_minor_formatter(lambda x, pos: str(x-5)) are shortcuts for:: import matplotlib.ticker as mticker ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(mticker.StrMethodFormatter('{x} km')) ax.xaxis.set_minor_formatter( mticker.FuncFormatter(lambda x, pos: str(x-5)) .. plot:: from matplotlib import ticker titles = ["'{x} km'", "lambda x, pos: str(x-5)"] formatters = ['{x} km', lambda x, pos: str(x-5)] fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 1, figsize=(8, 2), constrained_layout=True) for ax, title, formatter in zip(axs, titles, formatters): # only show the bottom spine ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(ticker.NullLocator()) for spine in ['top', 'left', 'right']: ax.spines[spine].set_visible(False) # define tick positions ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(ticker.MultipleLocator(1.00)) ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(ticker.MultipleLocator(0.25)) ax.tick_params(which='major', width=1.00, length=5) ax.tick_params(which='minor', width=0.75, length=2.5, labelsize=10) ax.set_xlim(0, 5) ax.set_ylim(0, 1) ax.text(0.0, 0.2, f'ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter({title})', transform=ax.transAxes, fontsize=14, fontname='Monospace', color='tab:blue') ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter) ``Axes.set_title`` gains a *y* keyword argument to control auto positioning --------------------------------------------------------------------------- `~.axes.Axes.set_title` tries to auto-position the title to avoid any decorators on the top x-axis. This is not always desirable so now *y* is an explicit keyword argument of `~.axes.Axes.set_title`. It defaults to *None* which means to use auto-positioning. If a value is supplied (i.e. the pre-3.0 default was ``y=1.0``) then auto-positioning is turned off. This can also be set with the new rcParameter :rc:`axes.titley`. .. plot:: fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2, constrained_layout=True, figsize=(5, 2)) axs[0].set_title('y=0.7\n$\\sum_{j_n} x_j$', y=0.7) axs[1].set_title('y=None\n$\\sum_{j_n} x_j$') plt.show() Offset text is now set to the top when using ``axis.tick_top()`` ---------------------------------------------------------------- Solves the issue that the power indicator (e.g., 1e4) stayed on the bottom, even if the ticks were on the top. Set zorder of contour labels ---------------------------- `~.axes.Axes.clabel` now accepts a *zorder* keyword argument making it easier to set the *zorder* of contour labels. If not specified, the default *zorder* of clabels used to always be 3 (i.e. the default *zorder* of `~.text.Text`) irrespective of the *zorder* passed to `~.axes.Axes.contour`/`~.axes.Axes.contourf`. The new default *zorder* for clabels has been changed to (``2 + zorder`` passed to `~.axes.Axes.contour` / `~.axes.Axes.contourf`). Other changes ============= New ``Axes.axline`` method -------------------------- A new `~.axes.Axes.axline` method has been added to draw infinitely long lines that pass through two points. .. plot:: :include-source: True fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.axline((.1, .1), slope=5, color='C0', label='by slope') ax.axline((.1, .2), (.8, .7), color='C3', label='by points') ax.legend() ``imshow`` now coerces 3D arrays with depth 1 to 2D --------------------------------------------------- Starting from this version arrays of size MxNx1 will be coerced into MxN for displaying. This means commands like ``plt.imshow(np.random.rand(3, 3, 1))`` will no longer return an error message that the image shape is invalid. Better control of ``Axes.pie`` normalization -------------------------------------------- Previously, `.Axes.pie` would normalize its input *x* if ``sum(x) > 1``, but would do nothing if the sum were less than 1. This can be confusing, so an explicit keyword argument *normalize* has been added. By default, the old behavior is preserved. By passing *normalize*, one can explicitly control whether any rescaling takes place or whether partial pies should be created. If normalization is disabled, and ``sum(x) > 1``, then an error is raised. .. plot:: def label(x): return [str(v) for v in x] x = np.array([0.25, 0.3, 0.3]) fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 2, constrained_layout=True) ax[0, 0].pie(x, autopct='%1.1f%%', labels=label(x), normalize=False) ax[0, 0].set_title('normalize=False') ax[0, 1].pie(x, autopct='%1.2f%%', labels=label(x), normalize=True) ax[0, 1].set_title('normalize=True') # This is supposed to show the 'old' behavior of not passing *normalize* # explicitly, but for the purposes of keeping the documentation build # warning-free, and future proof for when the deprecation is made # permanent, we pass *normalize* here explicitly anyway. ax[1, 0].pie(x, autopct='%1.2f%%', labels=label(x), normalize=False) ax[1, 0].set_title('normalize unspecified\nsum(x) < 1') ax[1, 1].pie(x * 10, autopct='%1.2f%%', labels=label(x * 10), normalize=True) ax[1, 1].set_title('normalize unspecified\nsum(x) > 1') Dates use a modern epoch ------------------------ Matplotlib converts dates to days since an epoch using `.dates.date2num` (via `matplotlib.units`). Previously, an epoch of ``0000-12-31T00:00:00`` was used so that ``0001-01-01`` was converted to 1.0. An epoch so distant in the past meant that a modern date was not able to preserve microseconds because 2000 years times the 2^(-52) resolution of a 64-bit float gives 14 microseconds. Here we change the default epoch to the more reasonable UNIX default of ``1970-01-01T00:00:00`` which for a modern date has 0.35 microsecond resolution. (Finer resolution is not possible because we rely on `datetime.datetime` for the date locators). Access to the epoch is provided by `~.dates.get_epoch`, and there is a new :rc:`date.epoch` rcParam. The user may also call `~.dates.set_epoch`, but it must be set *before* any date conversion or plotting is used. If you have data stored as ordinal floats in the old epoch, you can convert them to the new ordinal using the following formula:: new_ordinal = old_ordinal + mdates.date2num(np.datetime64('0000-12-31')) Lines now accept ``MarkerStyle`` instances as input --------------------------------------------------- Similar to `~.Axes.scatter`, `~.Axes.plot` and `~.lines.Line2D` now accept `~.markers.MarkerStyle` instances as input for the *marker* parameter:: plt.plot(..., marker=matplotlib.markers.MarkerStyle("D")) Fonts ===== Simple syntax to select fonts by absolute path ---------------------------------------------- Fonts can now be selected by passing an absolute `pathlib.Path` to the *font* keyword argument of `.Text`. Improved font weight detection ------------------------------ Matplotlib is now better able to determine the weight of fonts from their metadata, allowing to differentiate between fonts within the same family more accurately. rcParams improvements ===================== ``matplotlib.rc_context`` can be used as a decorator ---------------------------------------------------- `matplotlib.rc_context` can now be used as a decorator (technically, it is now implemented as a `contextlib.contextmanager`), e.g., :: @rc_context({"lines.linewidth": 2}) def some_function(...): ... rcParams for controlling default "raise window" behavior -------------------------------------------------------- The new config option :rc:`figure.raise_window` allows disabling of the raising of the plot window when calling `~.pyplot.show` or `~.pyplot.pause`. The ``MacOSX`` backend is currently not supported. Add generalized ``mathtext.fallback`` to rcParams ------------------------------------------------- New :rc:`mathtext.fallback` rcParam. Takes "cm", "stix", "stixsans" or "none" to turn fallback off. The rcParam *mathtext.fallback_to_cm* is deprecated, but if used, will override new fallback. Add ``contour.linewidth`` to rcParams ------------------------------------- The new config option :rc:`contour.linewidth` allows to control the default line width of contours as a float. When set to ``None``, the line widths fall back to :rc:`lines.linewidth`. The config value is overridden as usual by the *linewidths* argument passed to `~.axes.Axes.contour` when it is not set to ``None``. 3D Axes improvements ==================== ``Axes3D`` no longer distorts the 3D plot to match the 2D aspect ratio ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Plots made with :class:`~mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.axes3d.Axes3D` were previously stretched to fit a square bounding box. As this stretching was done after the projection from 3D to 2D, it resulted in distorted images if non-square bounding boxes were used. As of 3.3, this no longer occurs. Currently, modes of setting the aspect (via `~mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.axes3d.Axes3D.set_aspect`) in data space are not supported for Axes3D but may be in the future. If you want to simulate having equal aspect in data space, set the ratio of your data limits to match the value of `~.get_box_aspect`. To control these ratios use the `~mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.axes3d.Axes3D.set_box_aspect` method which accepts the ratios as a 3-tuple of X:Y:Z. The default aspect ratio is 4:4:3. 3D axes now support minor ticks ------------------------------- .. plot:: :include-source: True ax = plt.figure().add_subplot(projection='3d') ax.scatter([0, 1, 2], [1, 3, 5], [30, 50, 70]) ax.set_xticks([0.25, 0.75, 1.25, 1.75], minor=True) ax.set_xticklabels(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], minor=True) ax.set_yticks([1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5], minor=True) ax.set_yticklabels(['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'], minor=True) ax.set_zticks([35, 45, 55, 65], minor=True) ax.set_zticklabels([r'$\alpha$', r'$\beta$', r'$\delta$', r'$\gamma$'], minor=True) ax.tick_params(which='major', color='C0', labelcolor='C0', width=5) ax.tick_params(which='minor', color='C1', labelcolor='C1', width=3) Home/Forward/Backward buttons now work with 3D axes --------------------------------------------------- Interactive tool improvements ============================= More consistent toolbar behavior across backends ------------------------------------------------ Toolbar features are now more consistent across backends. The history buttons will auto-disable when there is no further action in a direction. The pan and zoom buttons will be marked active when they are in use. In NbAgg and WebAgg, the toolbar buttons are now grouped similarly to other backends. The WebAgg toolbar now uses the same icons as other backends. Toolbar icons are now styled for dark themes -------------------------------------------- On dark themes, toolbar icons will now be inverted. When using the GTK3Agg backend, toolbar icons are now symbolic, and both foreground and background colors will follow the theme. Tooltips should also behave correctly. Cursor text now uses a number of significant digits matching pointing precision ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previously, the x/y position displayed by the cursor text would usually include far more significant digits than the mouse pointing precision (typically one pixel). This is now fixed for linear scales. GTK / Qt zoom rectangle now black and white ------------------------------------------- This makes it visible even over a dark background. Event handler simplifications ----------------------------- The `.backend_bases.key_press_handler` and `.backend_bases.button_press_handler` event handlers can now be directly connected to a canvas with ``canvas.mpl_connect("key_press_event", key_press_handler)`` and ``canvas.mpl_connect("button_press_event", button_press_handler)``, rather than having to write wrapper functions that fill in the (now optional) *canvas* and *toolbar* parameters. Functions to compute a Path's size ================================== Various functions were added to `~.bezier.BezierSegment` and `~.path.Path` to allow computation of the shape/size of a `~.path.Path` and its composite Bezier curves. In addition to the fixes below, `~.bezier.BezierSegment` has gained more documentation and usability improvements, including properties that contain its dimension, degree, control_points, and more. Better interface for Path segment iteration ------------------------------------------- `~.path.Path.iter_bezier` iterates through the `~.bezier.BezierSegment`'s that make up the Path. This is much more useful typically than the existing `~.path.Path.iter_segments` function, which returns the absolute minimum amount of information possible to reconstruct the Path. Fixed bug that computed a Path's Bbox incorrectly ------------------------------------------------- Historically, `~.path.Path.get_extents` has always simply returned the Bbox of a curve's control points, instead of the Bbox of the curve itself. While this is a correct upper bound for the path's extents, it can differ dramatically from the Path's actual extents for non-linear Bezier curves. Backend-specific improvements ============================= ``savefig()`` gained a *backend* keyword argument ------------------------------------------------- The *backend* keyword argument to ``savefig`` can now be used to pick the rendering backend without having to globally set the backend; e.g., one can save PDFs using the pgf backend with ``savefig("file.pdf", backend="pgf")``. The SVG backend can now render hatches with transparency -------------------------------------------------------- The SVG backend now respects the hatch stroke alpha. Useful applications are, among others, semi-transparent hatches as a subtle way to differentiate columns in bar plots. SVG supports URLs on more artists --------------------------------- URLs on more artists (i.e., from `.Artist.set_url`) will now be saved in SVG files, namely, ``Tick``\s and ``Line2D``\s are now supported. Images in SVG will no longer be blurred in some viewers ------------------------------------------------------- A style is now supplied to images without interpolation (``imshow(..., interpolation='none'``) so that SVG image viewers will no longer perform interpolation when rendering themselves. Saving SVG now supports adding metadata --------------------------------------- When saving SVG files, metadata can now be passed which will be saved in the file using `Dublin Core`_ and `RDF`_. A list of valid metadata can be found in the documentation for `.FigureCanvasSVG.print_svg`. .. _Dublin Core: https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/ .. _RDF: https://www.w3.org/1999/.status/PR-rdf-syntax-19990105/status Saving PDF metadata via PGF now consistent with PDF backend ----------------------------------------------------------- When saving PDF files using the PGF backend, passed metadata will be interpreted in the same way as with the PDF backend. Previously, this metadata was only accepted by the PGF backend when saving a multi-page PDF with `.backend_pgf.PdfPages`, but is now allowed when saving a single figure, as well. NbAgg and WebAgg no longer use jQuery & jQuery UI ------------------------------------------------- Instead, they are implemented using vanilla JavaScript. Please report any issues with browsers.