Demo of tick label rotation

gistfile1.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import numpy
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

X, Y = numpy.meshgrid(numpy.linspace(-2, 2, 200, numpy.linspace(-2 ,2 ,20))

fig = plt.figure(figsize=[16,8])
axes = []
for n in xrange(2):
    axes.append(fig.add_subplot(1, 2, n + 1))
    axes[n].pcolor(X, Y, X*Y)
    axes[n].set_xlim(-1,1)
    axes[n].set_ylim(-1,1)

labels = axes[0].get_xticks().tolist()
axes[0].set_xticklabels(labels, rotation=30)

for label in axes[1].get_xticklabels():
    label.set_rotation(30)

plt.show()