Styles and figure sizes¶

Activate a journal’s look, then make figures at exactly the size the journal prints them. Supported journals describes each journal and Quickstart walks through a first figure.

Activating a style¶

plotastro.set_style(journal='mnras', *, usetex=False, grid=None, palette=None, cmap=None, **rc_overrides)[source]¶

Activate the plotting style for a journal.

Parameters:

journal (str) – One of "mnras", "rasti", "aanda" (aliases "a&a", "aa"), "apj" (aliases "apjl", "aastex"), "oja", "prd" (aliases "prl", "revtex"), "jcap", "natastro" (alias "nature"), "euclid" (alias "ec"; Euclid Consortium papers in the look of the ECEB’s niceplots), "thesis" or "beamer".
usetex (bool, optional) – If True, render all text with a real LaTeX installation using fonts matching the journal (newtx Times for the serif journals, Helvetica for Nature Astronomy, Computer Modern Sans for Euclid). Default False (portable mathtext).
grid (bool, optional) – Override the style’s grid setting (the styles default to a subtle grid, except "euclid"; pass grid=False for a clean journal look).
palette (str or sequence of colours, optional) – Replace the colour cycle. A name — "default", "okabe_ito", "petroff8", "petroff10", "tol_vibrant", or one of the Euclid niceplots schemes "categorical1", "categorical2", "categorical3", "sequential", "diverging" (see euclid_colors()); "cmr.<name>" for 8 colours sampled from a CMasher colormap (see cmasher_colors()) — or any list or dict of colours.
cmap (str, optional) – Default colormap for imshow, pcolormesh, scatter etc. (the styles use viridis): any matplotlib colormap name, or "cmr.<name>" for a CMasher colormap (see cmasher_cmap()). CMasher is optional: it is only imported when a "cmr." name is used here or in palette.
**rc_overrides – Any extra rcParams, e.g. set_style("mnras", **{"font.size": 10}).

Examples

>>> pa.set_style("aanda")
>>> pa.set_style("mnras", usetex=True, grid=False)
>>> pa.set_style("euclid", palette="categorical3")
>>> pa.set_style("mnras", palette="cmr.rainforest", cmap="cmr.ocean")

plotastro.use(journal='mnras', *, usetex=False, grid=None, palette=None, cmap=None, **rc_overrides)¶: Alias of set_style(), for those who prefer pa.use("mnras"), after which everything is plain matplotlib.

plotastro.current_journal()[source]¶

Name of the journal activated by the last set_style() call.

Returns:

str (a key of JOURNALS, e.g. "mnras" (also the value)
before any set_style() call). Aliases are resolved, so after
set_style("a&a") this is "aanda".

Journal names¶

journal= takes a key or an alias, in set_style(), figsize(), subplots() and authorlist(). Case, spaces and hyphens are ignored, so "A&A" and "Open Journal" work too.

key	journal	aliases
`mnras`	Monthly Notices of the RAS	`mnras_full` (from the original API)
`rasti`	RAS Techniques and Instruments
`aanda`	Astronomy & Astrophysics	`a&a`, `aa`, `astronomy&astrophysics`
`apj`	The Astrophysical Journal (AASTeX)	`apjl`, `aj`, `aas`, `aastex`
`oja`	The Open Journal of Astrophysics	`openjournal`, `theoj`, `openjournalofastrophysics`
`prd`	Physical Review D (REVTeX 4.2)	`prl`, `aps`, `revtex`
`jcap`	J. of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
`natastro`	Nature Astronomy	`nature`, `natureastronomy`, `natastron`
`euclid`	Euclid Consortium (A&A, niceplots look)	`ec`, `euclidconsortium`, `niceplots`
`thesis`	A4 thesis text width (MNRAS look)
`beamer`	Beamer slide text width (MNRAS look)

With plain matplotlib¶

Importing plotastro registers its styles with matplotlib, so afterwards they work in any code, without the helpers:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import plotastro                  # registers the styles

plt.style.use("mnras")

The registered names are the style files: mnras, rasti, aanda, apj, oja, prd, jcap, natastro and euclid. Each sets the journal’s fonts, ticks and colour cycle, and a one-column default figure size. Aliases, the thesis and beamer presets, and the extra options (usetex, grid, palette, cmap) are only available through set_style().

Figure sizes¶

plotastro.figsize(width='column', *, journal=None, fraction=1.0, nrows=1, ncols=1, aspect=None, height=None)[source]¶

Figure dimensions (inches) that match the journal’s text layout, so the figure is never rescaled (and its fonts shrunk) by LaTeX.

Parameters:

width ({"column", "full"} or float) – "column" for a one-column figure, "full" for the full text width, or a number = a custom width in LaTeX points (get yours with \the\columnwidth in your .tex file).
journal (str, optional) – Journal to size for; defaults to the one from the last set_style() call.
fraction (float, optional) – Fraction of that width to occupy (e.g. 0.5 for half a column).
nrows (int, optional) – Subplot grid shape; the height scales so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
ncols (int, optional) – Subplot grid shape; the height scales so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
aspect (float, optional) – Height/width ratio of one panel. Default: the journal’s own — the golden ratio (0.618) everywhere except "euclid", which follows niceplots’ 4:3. Use aspect=1 for square panels.
height (float, optional) – Explicit figure height in inches (overrides aspect).

Returns:

(width_in, height_in)

Return type:

tuple of float

plotastro.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=1, *, width='column', journal=None, fraction=1.0, aspect=None, height=None, **kwargs)[source]¶

plt.subplots with the figure size computed by figsize().

Parameters:

nrows (int, optional) – Subplot grid shape.
ncols (int, optional) – Subplot grid shape.
width – Passed to figsize(), together with nrows and ncols, so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
journal – Passed to figsize(), together with nrows and ncols, so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
fraction – Passed to figsize(), together with nrows and ncols, so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
aspect – Passed to figsize(), together with nrows and ncols, so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
height – Passed to figsize(), together with nrows and ncols, so each panel keeps the requested aspect ratio.
**kwargs – Forwarded to plt.subplots (e.g. sharex=True). Passing figsize= yourself overrides the computed size.

Returns:

fig (Figure)
ax (Axes or array of Axes) – As returned by plt.subplots.

Examples

>>> fig, ax = pa.subplots()                          # one-column figure
>>> fig, axes = pa.subplots(2, 2, width="full")      # full-width 2x2 grid
>>> fig, ax = pa.subplots(aspect=1)                  # square panel

plotastro.savefig(name, fig=None, formats=('pdf',), **kwargs)[source]¶

Save a figure under one or more formats at once.

Parameters:

name (str or Path) – Output path without extension (a known extension is stripped).
fig (Figure, optional) – Defaults to the current figure.
formats (sequence of str, optional) – e.g. ("pdf", "png") to get both a vector file for the paper and a raster preview.
**kwargs – Forwarded to fig.savefig (e.g. dpi=600).

Returns:

list of str

Return type:

the files written.

Journal data¶

plotastro.JOURNALS: dict¶

Layout of every journal and preset, keyed by journal name (see Journal names). Each entry has:

"column", "full": One-column and full text width, in LaTeX points (1 pt = 1/72.27 in). They are equal for single-column layouts (jcap, thesis, beamer).
"style": The .mplstyle file the journal uses, in STYLE_DIR.
"tex": The LaTeX preamble set_style(usetex=True) uses, matching the journal’s fonts.
"name": The journal’s full name.
"aspect" (optional): Default height/width ratio, if not GOLDEN. Only euclid has one (0.75).

>>> pa.JOURNALS["mnras"]["column"], pa.JOURNALS["mnras"]["full"]
(240.0, 504.0)

plotastro.GOLDEN: float¶: The golden ratio, (√5 − 1)/2 ≈ 0.618: the default height/width ratio of a panel in figsize() (except for euclid, which uses 4:3).

plotastro.STYLE_DIR: pathlib.Path¶: The folder holding the bundled .mplstyle files. To use the styles without importing plotastro, copy them into matplotlib’s style library, matplotlib.get_configdir()/stylelib/.

Legacy¶

plotastro.set_size(width='mnras', fraction=1, subplots=(1, 1), hight_ratio=1)[source]¶

Deprecated — use figsize() instead. Kept so old scripts run.

set_size('mnras') == figsize('column', journal='mnras') and set_size('mnras_full') == figsize('full', journal='mnras').

Parameters:

width (str or float) – A journal key (one-column width), "mnras_full" for the full MNRAS text width, or a width in LaTeX points.
fraction (float) – Fraction of that width to occupy.
subplots ((int, int)) – Subplot grid shape, (rows, columns).
hight_ratio (float) – Multiplies the golden-ratio height (spelled as in the original API).

Returns:

(width_in, height_in)

Return type:

tuple of float