mpl_params.ipynb

{
 "metadata": {
  "name": ""
 },
 "nbformat": 3,
 "nbformat_minor": 0,
 "worksheets": [
  {
   "cells": [
    {
     "cell_type": "heading",
     "level": 1,
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "Interrogating matplotlib parameter settings in matplotlib.parameters\n"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "markdown",
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "The styling of `matplotlib` plots is highly configurable via parameter settings stored in the data structure `matplotlib.mpl_params` inside `matplotlib` (formerly called `matplotlib.rcParams`).\n",
      "\n",
      "`mpl_params` behaves similarly to a dictionary, i.e. it is a collection of key-value pairs, but it also has *validation*,\n",
      "meaning that the possible values associated to a given key may be restricted.\n",
      "\n",
      "For a key `k`, querying `mpl_params[key]` returns the current value associated to the key `key`, while\n",
      "\n",
      "    mpl_params[key] = value\n",
      "    \n",
      "associates the new value `value` to the key `key`.\n",
      "\n"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "%matplotlib\n"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [
      {
       "output_type": "stream",
       "stream": "stdout",
       "text": [
        "using matplotlib backend: MacOSX\n"
       ]
      }
     ],
     "prompt_number": 1
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "import matplotlib as mpl\n",
      "import numpy as np\n",
      "\n",
      "from matplotlib import pyplot as plt\n",
      "from matplotlib import rcParams\n",
      "\n",
      "mpl_params = rcParams"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [],
     "prompt_number": 13
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "markdown",
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "Since there are many configurable options in `mpl.parameters`,\n",
      "it is useful to restrict attention to a subset of interest.\n",
      "For example, we can list all of the keys containing the string `font` as follows:\n"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "font_keys = [k for k in mpl_params.keys() if 'font' in k]\n",
      "print font_keys"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [
      {
       "output_type": "stream",
       "stream": "stdout",
       "text": [
        "['font.cursive', 'font.family', 'font.fantasy', 'font.monospace', 'font.sans-serif', 'font.serif', 'font.size', 'font.stretch', 'font.style', 'font.variant', 'font.weight', 'legend.fontsize', 'mathtext.fontset', 'pdf.fonttype', 'pdf.use14corefonts', 'pgf.rcfonts', 'ps.fonttype', 'svg.fonttype']\n"
       ]
      }
     ],
     "prompt_number": 14
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "markdown",
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "We could define a function for this:"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "def get_keys_containing(word):\n",
      "    ''' \n",
      "    Returns the `matplotlib.rcParams` keys which contain the string `word`.\n",
      "    '''\n",
      "    \n",
      "    keys = [k for k in mpl_params.keys() if word in k]\n",
      "    return keys"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [],
     "prompt_number": 15
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "markdown",
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "and use it like so:"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "font_keys = get_keys_containing('font')\n",
      "print font_keys"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [
      {
       "output_type": "stream",
       "stream": "stdout",
       "text": [
        "['font.cursive', 'font.family', 'font.fantasy', 'font.monospace', 'font.sans-serif', 'font.serif', 'font.size', 'font.stretch', 'font.style', 'font.variant', 'font.weight', 'legend.fontsize', 'mathtext.fontset', 'pdf.fonttype', 'pdf.use14corefonts', 'pgf.rcfonts', 'ps.fonttype', 'svg.fonttype']\n"
       ]
      }
     ],
     "prompt_number": 16
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "markdown",
     "metadata": {},
     "source": [
      "Now we define a function to make a string with key-value pairs:"
     ]
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "def format_key_value_pairs(word):\n",
      "    \n",
      "    output = \"\"\n",
      "    \n",
      "    keys = get_keys_containing(word)\n",
      "    \n",
      "    for item in keys:\n",
      "        key = \"'{}'\".format(item)\n",
      "        value = mpl.parameters[item]\n",
      "    \n",
      "        pair = (\"{:>40}:{}\".format(key, value))\n",
      "        \n",
      "        output += pair + \"\\n\"\n",
      "    \n",
      "    return output"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [],
     "prompt_number": 18
    },
    {
     "cell_type": "code",
     "collapsed": false,
     "input": [
      "font_keys = format_key_value_pairs(\"font\")\n",
      "edge_keys = format_key_value_pairs(\"edge\")\n",
      "\n",
      "print font_keys, edge_keys\n"
     ],
     "language": "python",
     "metadata": {},
     "outputs": [
      {
       "output_type": "stream",
       "stream": "stdout",
       "text": [
        "                          'font.cursive':['Apple Chancery', 'Textile', 'Zapf Chancery', 'Sand', 'cursive']\n",
        "                           'font.family':sans-serif\n",
        "                          'font.fantasy':['Comic Sans MS', 'Chicago', 'Charcoal', 'ImpactWestern', 'fantasy']\n",
        "                        'font.monospace':['Bitstream Vera Sans Mono', 'DejaVu Sans Mono', 'Andale Mono', 'Nimbus Mono L', 'Courier New', 'Courier', 'Fixed', 'Terminal', 'monospace']\n",
        "                       'font.sans-serif':['Bitstream Vera Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Verdana', 'Geneva', 'Lucid', 'Arial', 'Helvetica', 'Avant Garde', 'sans-serif']\n",
        "                            'font.serif':['Bitstream Vera Serif', 'DejaVu Serif', 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Century Schoolbook L', 'Utopia', 'ITC Bookman', 'Bookman', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', 'Palatino', 'Charter', 'serif']\n",
        "                             'font.size':12\n",
        "                          'font.stretch':normal\n",
        "                            'font.style':normal\n",
        "                          'font.variant':normal\n",
        "                           'font.weight':normal\n",
        "                       'legend.fontsize':large\n",
        "                      'mathtext.fontset':cm\n",
        "                          'pdf.fonttype':3\n",
        "                    'pdf.use14corefonts':False\n",
        "                           'pgf.rcfonts':True\n",
        "                           'ps.fonttype':3\n",
        "                          'svg.fonttype':path\n",
        "                        'axes.edgecolor':k\n",
        "                      'figure.edgecolor':w\n",
        "                 'lines.markeredgewidth':0.5\n",
        "                       'patch.edgecolor':k\n",
        "                     'savefig.edgecolor':w\n",
        "\n"
       ]
      }
     ],
     "prompt_number": 19
    }
   ],
   "metadata": {}
  }
 ]
}