Change plot size in Matplotlib – Python

Prerequisite: Matplotlib

Plots are an effective way of visually representing data and summarizing it in a beautiful manner. However, if not plotted efficiently it seems appears complicated. In python’s matplotlib provides several libraries for the purpose of data representation.  

While making a plot it is important for us to optimize its size. Here are various ways to change the default plot size as per our required dimensions or resize a given plot. 

Method 1: Using set_figheight() and set_figwidth() 

For changing height and width of a plot set_figheight and set_figwidth are used

Python3

# importing the matplotlib library
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# values on x-axis
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
# values on y-axis
y = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# naming the x and y axis
plt.xlabel('x - axis')
plt.ylabel('y - axis')

# plotting a line plot with it's default size
print("Plot in it's default size: ")
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()

# plotting a line plot after changing it's width and height
f = plt.figure()
f.set_figwidth(4)
f.set_figheight(1)

print("Plot after re-sizing: ")
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()

Output:

Method 2: Using figsize

figsize() takes two parameters- width and height (in inches). By default the values for width and height are 6.4 and 4.8 respectively. 

Syntax:

plt.figure(figsize=(x,y)) 

Where, x and y are width and height respectively in inches.

Python3

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# values on x and y axis
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

# plot in it's default size
display(plt.plot(x, y))

# changing the size of figure to 2X2
plt.figure(figsize=(2, 2))
display(plt.plot(x, y))

Output:

output screenshot

Method 3: Changing the default rcParams

We can permanently change the default size of a figure as per our needs by setting the figure.figsize. 

Python3

# importing the matplotlib library
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# values on x-axis
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
# values on y-axis
y = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# naming the x axis
plt.xlabel('x - axis')
# naming the y axis
plt.ylabel('y - axis')

# plotting a line plot with it's default size
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()

# changing the rc parameters and plotting a line plot
plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [2, 2]

plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()

plt.scatter(x, y)
plt.show()

Output: