subplots_adjust moves axes unpredictably? - matplotlib

Question

I'm working on a python module that creates a matplotlib figure with an on_resize listener. The listener forces the height of the lower axes to a specific number of pixels (rather than scaling relative to figure size). It works. However, if (in matplotlib interactive mode) after creating the plot the user calls fig.subplots_adjust() it messes up subplot sizes. Here's a radically simplified version of what the module does:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.ion()
def make_plot():
fig = plt.figure()
gs = plt.GridSpec(10, 1, figure=fig)
ax_upper = fig.add_subplot(gs[:-1])
ax_lower = fig.add_subplot(gs[-1])
ax_upper.plot([0, 1])
ax_lower.plot([0, 1])
fig.canvas.mpl_connect('resize_event', on_resize)
return fig
def on_resize(event):
fig = event.canvas.figure
# get the current position
ax_lower_pos = list(fig.axes[1].get_position().bounds) # L,B,W,H
# compute desired height in figure-relative coords
desired_height_px = 40
xform = fig.transFigure.inverted()
desired_height_rel = xform.transform([0, desired_height_px])[1]
# set the new height
ax_lower_pos[-1] = desired_height_rel
fig.axes[1].set_position(ax_lower_pos)
# adjust ax_upper accordingly
ax_lower_top = fig.axes[1].get_position().extents[-1] # L,B,R,T
ax_upper_pos = list(fig.axes[0].get_position().bounds) # L,B,W,H
# new bottom
new_upper_bottom = ax_lower_top + desired_height_rel
ax_upper_pos[1] = new_upper_bottom
# new height
ax_upper_top = fig.axes[0].get_position().extents[-1] # L,B,R,T
new_upper_height = ax_upper_top - new_upper_bottom
ax_upper_pos[-1] = new_upper_height
# set the new position
fig.axes[0].set_position(ax_upper_pos)
fig.canvas.draw()
Here's the output if the user calls fig = make_plot():
Now if the user calls fig.subplots_adjust, the bottom axis is squished and the space between bottom and top axes is even more squished (the on_resize listener had set them both to 40px):
fig.subplots_adjust(top=0.7)
At this point, grabbing the corner of the window and dragging even a tiny bit is enough to trigger the on_resize listener and restore what I want (fixed pixel height for bottom axes and space between axes) while keeping the newly-added wide top margin intact:
How can I get that result without having to manually trigger a resize event? As far as I can tell, subplots_adjust does not fire off any events that I could listen for.
I think the problem lies in ax.update_params() updating the axes position with a figbox taken from the underlying subplotspec (which as far as I can tell doesn't get updated after initial figure creation?). (note: update_params is called from within subplots_adjust, see here).

Answer 1

The underlying problem seems to be to make an axes with a specific height in pixels. An easy solution to this is to use mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1's make_axes_locatable.
This allows to get rid of any callback and hence of the complete problem of the race condition in the events.
A note: The plot seems to be part of a bigger library. Since it is always nice not to patronize the users of such packages, one would usually allow them to specify the axes to plot to, such that they can put the plot into a bigger figure with other elements. The below solution makes this particularly easy.
Of course, also calling plt.subplots_adjust is still possible at any time.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.axes_divider import make_axes_locatable
desired_height_px = 40 #pixel
def make_plot(ax=None):
if not ax:
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
else:
fig = ax.figure
div = make_axes_locatable(ax)
cax = div.append_axes("bottom", desired_height_px/fig.dpi, pad=0.25)
sc1 = ax.scatter([2,1,3], [2,3,1], c=[1,2,3])
sc2 = cax.scatter([3,2,1],[2,3,1], c=[3,1,2])
return fig, ax, cax, (sc1, sc2)
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1,2)
make_plot(ax=ax1)
#user plot on ax2
ax2.plot([1,3])
fig.subplots_adjust(top=0.7)
plt.show()