3.1. How to understand charts?

3.2. Figure anatomy

Figure 3.14. Figure Anatomy

3.3. Axes

• A given figure can contain many Axes, but a given Axes object can only be in one Figure

• Data limits can be controlled via set_xlim() and set_ylim() methods

• Each Axes has a title (set via set_title()), an x-label (set via set_xlabel()), and a y-label (set via set_ylabel())

3.4. Axis

• These are the number-line-like objects

• Axis can be integers

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator

x = np.linspace(0, 2, 100)

ax = plt.figure().gca()  # ``gca`` - get current axes

ax.plot(x, x, label='linear')
ax.plot(x, x**2, label='quadratic')
ax.plot(x, x**3, label='cubic')

ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True))

3.5. Artist

• Everything you can see on the figure is an artist (even the Figure, Axes, and Axis objects)

• This includes Text objects, Line2D objects, collection objects, Patch objects, etc

• Most Artists are tied to an Axes; such an Artist cannot be shared by multiple Axes, or moved from one to another