Supported journals

plotastro.set_style(), plotastro.figsize() and plt.style.use(...) accept these keys (aliases in parentheses):

key	journal	one column	full width
mnras	Monthly Notices of the RAS	240.0 pt = 3.32 in	504.0 pt = 6.97 in
rasti	RAS Techniques & Instruments	240.0 pt = 3.32 in	504.0 pt = 6.97 in
aanda (a&a, aa)	Astronomy & Astrophysics	250.4 pt = 3.46 in (88 mm)	512.2 pt = 7.09 in (180 mm)
apj (apjl, aastex)	The Astrophysical Journal	242.3 pt = 3.35 in	513.1 pt = 7.10 in
oja	Open Journal of Astrophysics	≈245.3 pt = 3.39 in	≈508 pt = 7.03 in
prd (prl, revtex)	Physical Review D	246.0 pt = 3.40 in	510.0 pt = 7.06 in
jcap	J. Cosmology & Astroparticle Phys.	single-column ≈455 pt = 6.30 in	—
natastro (nature)	Nature Astronomy (sans-serif!)	253.2 pt = 3.50 in (89 mm)	520.7 pt = 7.20 in (183 mm)
euclid (ec)	Euclid Consortium papers (A&A; niceplots look, sans-serif) - not recommended!	drawn 4.00 in = 289.1 pt, LaTeX scales it to 88 mm	8.00 in = 578.2 pt (2 × column)
thesis	A4 thesis text width	426.8 pt = 5.91 in	—
beamer	Beamer slide text width	307.3 pt = 4.25 in	—

Widths come from each journal’s LaTeX class or author guide. All styles share the same fonts, colours, tick and legend settings; only the figure width differs — except Nature Astronomy, which switches to the sans-serif fonts and smaller (5–7 pt) lettering Nature’s figure guide requires, and the Euclid style, described next.

Euclid Consortium papers

pa.set_style("euclid") (plotastro.set_style()) reproduces the look of niceplots, the Euclid Consortium Editorial Board’s matplotlib style for Euclid papers (Euclid-internal, GPL-3.0; set up by Lukas Hergt, with tweaks by Laila Linke). The style and its colour schemes are adapted from that repository: the settings are re-expressed in plotastro’s own template and nothing is copied from it. How it differs from the other styles:

• sans-serif text at 10 pt with Computer Modern maths, no grid, no minor ticks, framed legends, and axes.xmargin = 0;

• the default cycle is Petroff’s 8-colour palette (pa.PETROFF8); niceplots’ other schemes are available under their niceplots names — pa.set_style("euclid", palette="categorical3") or pa.euclid_colors("sequential", n=6) (see Colours);

• sizing follows niceplots rather than the exact-size approach: figures are drawn 4 × 3 in (two-column: 8 × 6 in) and LaTeX scales them into the 88 mm A&A column, so the 10 pt lettering prints at ≈ 8.7 pt. Include them with \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig.pdf}. For a figure at its exact printed size with the Euclid look, size it for A&A instead: pa.subplots(journal="aanda").

pa.set_style("euclid", usetex=True) gives niceplots’ LaTeX rendering (Computer Modern Sans text). Euclid papers use A&A’s aaEC class, so pa.authorlist(..., journal="euclid") produces the A&A author block.

Custom documents

For your own document (custom class, thesis template, …), put \the\columnwidth or \the\textwidth anywhere in the .tex body, compile, read the value off the page, and pass it directly:

pa.figsize(width=345.0)          # width in LaTeX points (1 pt = 1/72.27 in)

Per-journal submission notes

journal	accepted figure formats	notes
MNRAS / RASTI	EPS preferred, PDF/TIFF fine	≥ 400 dpi raster, ~8 pt lettering, colour-blind friendly required
A&A	PDF/EPS	figures 88 mm (column) or 170–180 mm (page) wide
ApJ / AAS	PDF/EPS/PNG	vector strongly preferred
OJA	PDF (arXiv-ready)	whatever compiles on arXiv works
PRD / JCAP	PDF/EPS	vector preferred
Nature Astronomy	PDF/EPS/AI	sans-serif fonts, 5–7 pt lettering
Euclid (A&A)	PDF	niceplots look: 4 × 3 in at 10 pt, scaled by LaTeX into the 88 mm column

Official guidelines: MNRAS · A&A · AAS Journals · OJA · APS · Nature · Euclid niceplots (Euclid-internal)