Actually, let's generalize this even further to more than just text. For example, consider the parameters for axes objects, but maybe one might want to specify something just for axes3d objects. So something like this:

Consider two rcParam files:

axes.facecolor = 'gray'
axes.3d.facecolor = 'white'

and

axes.facecolor = 'gray'

Then, in axes3d, I specify that I want the facecolor rc param like so: rcParams['axes.3d.facecolor'] and in the first case I would get back 'white' and in the second case I would get back 'gray'. I am not exactly sure how to implement such a thing, but maybe modify the get function to split on periods and successively test for the existance of a parameter that equals the rejoined string minus the second to last element (to the limit of two elements).

If we followed that route, I think it should be "axes3d.facecolor", since there is no "axes.2d.facecolor"

I think this needs an MEP. @mdboom & @WeatherGod seem like the likely candidates, but if anyone else wanted to give it a shot, say so in this issue.

Thanks,

@mdboom - I was going to open a new issue but I think you are suggesting the same thing. I want to be able to set a different font family for the axis labels and the tick labels. I don't think this is something that can currently be done?

This should be folded into @tonysyu s style sheet work.

If I'm reading this correctly, then my comment on issue #2467 might by relevant:
#2467 (comment)
(EDIT: Accidentally hit green button.)
It allows arbitrary mappings to default parameters, but those mappings have to be set manually. But at least there's a sketch of an implementation. :)

Should be addressed in #2637

Closing this as this is in the scope of the planned work re a DOM.