matplotlib Artist 教程

总括

简介

在matplotlib API中有三个图层：matplotlib.backend_bases.FigureCanvas(画板)、matplotlib.backend_bases.Renderer(渲染)、matplotlib.artist.Artist(如何渲染)。我们大部分的时间都是处理Artists.
有两种类型的Artists：基础数据（primitives）代表了标准的我们想绘制的图形对象，比如Line2D、Rectangle，Text，AxesImage等；容器（container）代表了储存以上对象的地方，比如Axis，Axes和Figure。标准的使用流程是首先创建一个画板（figure）实例，然后再使用画板创建一个或多个轴（Axes）或子图（subplot）实例，然后使用轴实例方法，去创建基础数据（primitives）。
轴对象（Axes）可能是matplotlib API中最终要类，因为Axes是几乎所有对象的绘制区域，它有很多方法（plot(),text(),hist(),imshow()）来创建图形基础数据（Line2D,Test,Rectangle,Image,respectively）。这些方法将会获取你的数据，然后创建基础的Artist实例（比如Line2D），然后添加他们去相关的容器中，最后在需要的时刻绘制出他们。你可能很熟悉subplot，它其实是Axes的一个特例。你可以通过add_axes()方法来创建任意位置的Axes对象。

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(2,1,1) # two rows, one column, first plot
fig2 = plt.figure()
ax2 = fig2.add_axes([0.15, 0.1, 0.7, 0.3])
import numpy as np
t = np.arange(0.0, 1.0, 0.01)
s = np.sin(2*np.pi*t)
line, = ax.plot(t, s, color='blue', lw=2)
In [101]: ax.lines[0]
Out[101]: <matplotlib.lines.Line2D instance at 0x19a95710>

在上例中，ax是Axes通过fig.add_subplot创建的一个实例对象，当你输入ax.plot时，它创建了一个Line2D实例并把它天剑到Axes.lines 列表里。如果你继续输入ax.plot，新的实例将会被添加到列表里。你可以删除这些实例：

del ax.lines[0]
ax.lines.remove(line) # one or the other, not both!

Axes也有可以装饰x轴刻度（x-axis tick）y轴刻度（y-axis tick）,刻度标签（tick labels）和轴标签（axis labels）：

xtext = ax.set_xlabel('my xdata') # returns a Text instance
ytext = ax.set_ylabel('my ydata')

当你使用ax.set_xlabel时，它将会传递信息给XAxis的Test实例。每一个Axes实例都包含了一个XAxis和一个YAxis实例，这些实例能够控制图层然后绘制刻度（ticks）、刻度标签（tick labels）和轴标签（axis labels）

Artist对象

每一个图片的元素都会被Artist控制，他们都含有很多的属性。figure对象包含了Rectangle实例，它可以设置背景颜色和透明度。同样的Axes也含有。这些实例被储存在Figure.patch.和Axes.patch中。每一个Artist都包含了以下的属性：

Property	Description
alpha	The transparency - a scalar from 0-1
animated	A boolean that is used to facilitate animated drawing
axes	The axes that the Artist lives in, possibly None
clip_box	The bounding box that clips the Artist
clip_on	Whether clipping is enabled
clip_path	The path the artist is clipped to
contains	A picking function to test whether the artist contains the pick point
figure	The figure instance the artist lives in, possibly None
label	A text label (e.g., for auto-labeling)
picker	A python object that controls object picking
transform	The transformation
visible	A boolean whether the artist should be drawn
zorder	A number which determines the drawing order
rasterized	Boolean; Turns vectors into rastergraphics: (for compression & eps transparency)

你可以通过get&set的方式来设置这些属性

a = o.get_alpha()
o.set_alpha(0.5*a)

也可以一次设置多个属性

o.set(alpha=0.5, zorder=2)

你可以通过matplotlib.artist.getp()方法来获得Artist的属性：

matplotlib.artist.getp(fig.patch)
alpha = 1.0
animated = False
antialiased or aa = True
axes = None
clip_box = None
clip_on = False
clip_path = None
contains = None
edgecolor or ec = w
facecolor or fc = 0.75
figure = Figure(8.125x6.125)
fill = 1
hatch = None
height = 1
label =
linewidth or lw = 1.0
picker = None
transform = <Affine object at 0x134cca84>
verts = ((0, 0), (0, 1), (1, 1), (1, 0))
visible = True
width = 1
window_extent = <Bbox object at 0x134acbcc>
x = 0
y = 0
zorder = 1

对象容器

primitives是哪些你想要设置的东西（比如，Test实例的字体，Line2D的宽度），而容器也包含了一些属性（比如，控制x轴（xaxis）是线性（linear）还是对数（log）的刻度（xscale））

画板容器（Figure container）

最高等级的Artist是Matplotlib.figure.Figure，它包含了所有的东西。画板的背景是Rectangle，它被存储在Figure.patch中。如果你增加了subplots（add_subplot()）和axes（add_axes()），这些将被追加在Figure.axes中。

In [156]: fig = plt.figure()
In [157]: ax1 = fig.add_subplot(211)
In [158]: ax2 = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.1, 0.7, 0.3])
In [159]: ax1
Out[159]: <matplotlib.axes.Subplot instance at 0xd54b26c>
In [160]: print fig.axes
[<matplotlib.axes.Subplot instance at 0xd54b26c>, <matplotlib.axes.Axes instance at␣
,→0xd3f0b2c>]

由于figure遵循了当前轴（current axes）的概念，所以你不能直接在轴列表（axes list）中添加或移除轴（Axes），你需要使用add_subplot()或者add_axes()方法。
figure也含有它自己的text、line、pathes和images。默认的坐标系统是像素（pixels）。
比较使用的画板坐标（figure coordinates）是（0,0）表示左下角（bottom-left）、（1,1）表示右上角（top-right），你可以设置fig.transFigure

In [191]: fig = plt.figure()
In [192]: l1 = matplotlib.lines.Line2D([0, 1], [0, 1],
transform=fig.transFigure, figure=fig)
In [193]: l2 = matplotlib.lines.Line2D([0, 1], [1, 0],
transform=fig.transFigure, figure=fig)
In [194]: fig.lines.extend([l1, l2])
In [195]: fig.canvas.draw()

下表是Figure的属性

FigureAttribute	Description
axes	A list of Axes instances (includes Subplot)
patch	The Rectangle background
images	A list of FigureImages patches - useful for raw pixel display
legends	A list of Figure Legend instances (dierent from Axes.legends)
lines	A list of Figure Line2D instances (rarely used, see Axes.lines)
patches	A list of Figure patches (rarely used, see Axes.patches)
texts	A list Figure Text instances

子图容器（Axes container）

就像Figure一样，它也包含了Patch，patch可以是一个方形的笛卡尔坐标（Cartesian），也可是是极坐标（polar），它决定了形状，背景和边缘。

ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
rect = ax.patch # a Rectangle instance
rect.set_facecolor('green')

当你输入plot()，这个方法将会创建一个matplotlib.lines.Line2D()实例，然后将这个实例放在Axes.lines中，并返回给你：

In [213]: x, y = np.random.rand(2, 100)
In [214]: line, = ax.plot(x, y, '-', color='blue', linewidth=2)
In [229]: print ax.lines
[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D instance at 0xd378b0c>]

相似的，方法同样创建了patches，就像bar()创建了一系列的rectangles，将添加patches在Axes.patches列表中：

In [233]: n, bins, rectangles = ax.hist(np.random.randn(1000), 50, facecolor='yellow')
In [234]: rectangles
Out[234]: <a list of 50 Patch objects>
In [235]: print len(ax.patches)

你可以使用add_line()和add_patch()来添加队形到Axes中：

In [261]: fig = plt.figure()
In [262]: ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
# create a rectangle instance
In [263]: rect = matplotlib.patches.Rectangle( (1,1), width=5, height=12)
# by default the axes instance is None
In [264]: print rect.get_axes()
None
# and the transformation instance is set to the "identity transform"
In [265]: print rect.get_transform()
<Affine object at 0x13695544>
# now we add the Rectangle to the Axes
In [266]: ax.add_patch(rect)
# and notice that the ax.add_patch method has set the axes
# instance
In [267]: print rect.get_axes()
Axes(0.125,0.1;0.775x0.8)
# and the transformation has been set too
In [268]: print rect.get_transform()
<Affine object at 0x15009ca4>
# the default axes transformation is ax.transData
In [269]: print ax.transData
<Affine object at 0x15009ca4>
# notice that the xlimits of the Axes have not been changed
In [270]: print ax.get_xlim()
(0.0, 1.0)
# but the data limits have been updated to encompass the rectangle
In [271]: print ax.dataLim.bounds
(1.0, 1.0, 5.0, 12.0)
# we can manually invoke the auto-scaling machinery
In [272]: ax.autoscale_view()
# and now the xlim are updated to encompass the rectangle
In [273]: print ax.get_xlim()
(1.0, 6.0)
# we have to manually force a figure draw
In [274]: ax.figure.canvas.draw()

这里有很多的Axes方法来创建primitive Artists然后把他们添加到相应的容器中，如下：

Helper method	Artist	Container
ax.annotate - text annotations	Annotate	ax.texts
ax.bar - bar charts	Rectangle	ax.patches
ax.errorbar - error bar plots	Line2D and Rectangle	ax.lines and ax.patches
ax.fill - shared area	Polygon	ax.patches
ax.hist - histograms	Rectangle	ax.patches
ax.imshow - image data	AxesImage	ax.images
ax.legend - axes legends	Legend	ax.legends
ax.plot - xy plots	Line2D	ax.lines
ax.scatter - scatter charts	PolygonCollection	ax.collections
ax.text - text	Text	ax.texts

Axes包含了两个比较重要的Artist容器：XAxis和YAxis，这两个容器控制了刻度（ticks）和标签（labels），他们的实例是xaxis和yaxis。
下面是Axes容器的属性：

Axes attribute	Description
artists	A list of Artist instances
patch	Rectangle instance for Axes background
collections	A list of Collection instances
images	A list of AxesImage
legends	A list of Legend instances
lines	A list of Line2D instances
patches	A list of Patch instances
texts	A list of Text instances
xaxis	matplotlib.axis.XAxis instance
yaxis	matplotlib.axis.YAxis instance

坐标轴容器（Axis containers）

matplotlib.axis.Axis实例控制了刻度线（tick），网格线（grid），刻度标签（ticklabels）和轴标签（axis label）。每一个Axis对象包含了label对象，也包含了大小刻度的列表。刻度对象的实例是XTick和YTick，你可以通过get_major_ticks() 和 get_minor_ticks()来获得他们。

 In [285]: axis = ax.xaxis

In [286]: axis.get_ticklocs()
Out[286]: array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.,  5.,  6.,  7.,  8.,  9.])

In [287]: axis.get_ticklabels()
Out[287]: <a list of 10 Text major ticklabel objects>

# note there are twice as many ticklines as labels because by
#  default there are tick lines at the top and bottom but only tick
#  labels below the xaxis; this can be customized
In [288]: axis.get_ticklines()
Out[288]: <a list of 20 Line2D ticklines objects>

# by default you get the major ticks back
In [291]: axis.get_ticklines()
Out[291]: <a list of 20 Line2D ticklines objects>

# but you can also ask for the minor ticks
In [292]: axis.get_ticklines(minor=True)
Out[292]: <a list of 0 Line2D ticklines objects>

轴的方法总结：

Accessor method	Description
get_scale	The scale of the axis, e.g., ‘log’ or ‘linear’
get_view_interval	The interval instance of the axis view limits
get_data_interval	The interval instance of the axis data limits
get_gridlines	A list of grid lines for the Axis
get_label	The axis label - a Text instance
get_ticklabels	A list of Text instances - keyword minor=True
get_ticklines	A list of Line2D instances - keyword minor=True
get_ticklocs	A list of Tick locations - keyword minor=True
get_major_locator	The matplotlib.ticker.Locator instance for major ticks
get_major_formatter	The matplotlib.ticker.Formatter instance for major ticks
get_minor_locator	The matplotlib.ticker.Locator instance for minor ticks
get_minor_formatter	The matplotlib.ticker.Formatter instance for minor ticks
get_major_ticks	A list of Tick instances for major ticks
get_minor_ticks	A list of Tick instances for minor ticks
grid	Turn the grid on or off for the major or minor ticks

例子：

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# plt.figure creates a matplotlib.figure.Figure instance
fig = plt.figure()
rect = fig.patch # a rectangle instance
rect.set_facecolor('lightgoldenrodyellow')

ax1 = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.4])
rect = ax1.patch
rect.set_facecolor('lightslategray')


for label in ax1.xaxis.get_ticklabels():
    # label is a Text instance
    label.set_color('red')
    label.set_rotation(45)
    label.set_fontsize(16)

for line in ax1.yaxis.get_ticklines():
    # line is a Line2D instance
    line.set_color('green')
    line.set_markersize(25)
    line.set_markeredgewidth(3)

plt.show()

刻度容器（Tick containers）

matplotlib.axis.Tick是最低级的容积（ 从Figure 到 Axes 到 Axis 到 Tick.）

Tick attribute	Description
tick1line	Line2D instance
tick2line	Line2D instance
gridline	Line2D instance
label1	Text instance
label2	Text instance
gridOn	boolean which determines whether to draw the tickline
tick1On	boolean which determines whether to draw the 1st tickline
tick2On	boolean which determines whether to draw the 2nd tickline
label1On	boolean which determines whether to draw tick label
label2On	boolean which determines whether to draw tick label

例子：

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker as ticker

# Fixing random state for reproducibility
np.random.seed(19680801)

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.plot(100*np.random.rand(20))

formatter = ticker.FormatStrFormatter('$%1.2f')
ax.yaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)

for tick in ax.yaxis.get_major_ticks():
    tick.label1On = False
    tick.label2On = True
    tick.label2.set_color('green')

plt.show()