Preparing your

gures to share with

others
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B

Ariel Rokem
Data Scientist
Changing plot style
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(seattle_weather["MONTH"], seattle_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"]
ax.plot(austin_weather["MONTH"], austin_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"])
ax.set_xlabel("Time (months)")
ax.set_ylabel("Average temperature (Fahrenheit degrees)")
plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Choosing a style
plt.style.use("ggplot")

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(seattle_weather["MONTH"], seattle_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"]
ax.plot(austin_weather["MONTH"], austin_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"])
ax.set_xlabel("Time (months)")
ax.set_ylabel("Average temperature (Fahrenheit degrees)")
plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Back to the default
plt.style.use("default")

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

The available styles
https://matplotlib.org/gallery/style_sheets/style_sheets_reference.ht

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

The "bmh" style
plt.style.use("bmh")

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(seattle_weather["MONTH"], seattle_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"]
ax.plot(austin_weather["MONTH"], austin_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"])
ax.set_xlabel("Time (months)")
ax.set_ylabel("Average temperature (Fahrenheit degrees)")
plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Seaborn styles
plt.style.use("seaborn-colorblind")

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(seattle_weather["MONTH"], seattle_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"]
ax.plot(austin_weather["MONTH"], austin_weather["MLY-TAVG-NORMAL"])
ax.set_xlabel("Time (months)")
ax.set_ylabel("Average temperature (Fahrenheit degrees)")
plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Guidelines for choosing plotting style
Dark backgrounds are usually less visible

If color is important, consider choosing colorblind-friendly options

"seaborn-colorblind" or "tableau-colorblind10"

If you think that someone will want to print your gure, use less ink

If it will be printed in black-and-white, use the "grayscale" style

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

 Practice choosing
the right style for
you!
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B
 Sharing your
visualizations with
others
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B

Ariel Rokem
Data Scientist
A gure to share
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.bar(medals.index, medals["Gold"])
ax.set_xticklabels(medals.index, rotation=90)
ax.set_ylabel("Number of medals")

plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Saving the gure to le
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.bar(medals.index, medals["Gold"])
ax.set_xticklabels(medals.index, rotation=90)
ax.set_ylabel("Number of medals")

fig.savefig("gold_medals.png")

ls

gold_medals.png

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Different le formats
fig.savefig("gold_medals.jpg")

fig.savefig("gold_medals.jpg", quality=50)

fig.savefig("gold_medals.svg")

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Resolution
fig.savefig("gold_medals.png", dpi=300)

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Size
fig.set_size_inches([5, 3])

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Another aspect ratio
fig.set_size_inches([3, 5])

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

 Practice saving your
visualizations!
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B
 Automating gures
from data
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B

Ariel Rokem
Data Scientist
Why automate?
Ease and speed

Flexibility

Robustness

Reproducibility

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

How many different kinds of data?
summer_2016_medals["Sport"]

ID
62 Rowing
65 Taekwondo
73 Handball
...
134759 Handball
135132 Volleyball
135205 Boxing
Name: Sport, Length: 976, dtype: object

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Getting unique values of a column
sports = summer_2016_medals["Sport"].unique()

print(sports)

['Rowing' 'Taekwondo' 'Handball' 'Wrestling'

'Gymnastics' 'Swimming' 'Basketball' 'Boxing'
'Volleyball' 'Athletics']

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Bar-chart of heights for all sports
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for sport in sports:

sport_df = summer_2016_medals[summer_2016_medals["Sport"] == sport

ax.bar(sport, sport_df["Height"].mean(),
yerr=sport_df["Height"].std())

ax.set_ylabel("Height (cm)")
ax.set_xticklabels(sports, rotation=90)
plt.show()

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Figure derived automatically from the data

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

 Practice automating
visualizations!
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B
 Where to go next
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B

Ariel Rokem
Data Scientist
The Matplotlib gallery
https://matplotlib.org/gallery.html

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Gallery of examples

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Example page with code

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Plotting data in 3D

https://matplotlib.org/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/tutorial.html

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Visualizing images with pseudo-color

https://matplotlib.org/users/image_tutorial.html

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Animations

Image credit: Gytis Dudas and Andrew Rambaut

https://matplotlib.org/api/animation_api.html

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Using Matplotlib for geospatial data

https://scitools.org.uk/cartopy/docs/latest/

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Pandas + Matplotlib = Seaborn
seaborn.relplot(x="horsepower", y="mpg", hue="origin", size="weight"
sizes=(40, 400), alpha=.5, palette="muted",
height=6, data=mpg)

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

Seaborn example gallery
https://seaborn.pydata.org/examples/index.html

INTRODUCTION TO DATA VISUALIZATION WITH MATPLOTLIB

 Good luck visualizing
your data!
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N W I T H M AT P LOT L I B