From f5e2f36096725b170833522ee855a1375524b384 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tim Hoffmann <2836374+timhoffm@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 01:38:23 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Clarify docs of set_powerlimits()

---
 lib/matplotlib/ticker.py | 29 +++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
index 192811d99c5b..b9430418d459 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
@@ -653,19 +653,28 @@ def set_scientific(self, b):
         self._scientific = bool(b)
 
     def set_powerlimits(self, lims):
-        """
-        Sets size thresholds for scientific notation.
+        r"""
+        Set size thresholds for scientific notation.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        lims : (min_exp, max_exp)
-            A tuple containing the powers of 10 that determine the switchover
-            threshold. Numbers below ``10**min_exp`` and above ``10**max_exp``
-            will be displayed in scientific notation.
-
-            For example, ``formatter.set_powerlimits((-3, 4))`` sets the
-            pre-2007 default in which scientific notation is used for
-            numbers less than 1e-3 or greater than 1e4.
+        lims : (int, int)
+            A tuple *(min_exp, max_exp)* containing the powers of 10 that
+            determine the switchover threshold. For a number representable as
+            :math:`a \times 10^\mathrm{exp}`` with :math:`1 <= |a| < 10`,
+            scientific notation will be used if ``exp <= min_exp`` or
+            ``exp >= max_exp``.
+
+            In particular numbers with *exp* equal to the thresholds are
+            written in scientific notation.
+
+            Typically, *min_exp* will be negative and *max_exp* will be
+            positive.
+
+            For example, ``formatter.set_powerlimits((-3, 4))`` will provide
+            the following formatting:
+            :math:`1 \times 10^{-3}, 9.9 \times 10^{-3}, 0.01,`
+            :math:`9999, 1 \times 10^4`.
 
         See Also
         --------

From 02af02bf756338ae76f41e16e5d5c87650aaeb36 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas A Caswell <tcaswell@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 14:35:22 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] DOC: add reference to rcParams for axes.formatter.limits

---
 lib/matplotlib/ticker.py | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
index b9430418d459..31dbf601e531 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
@@ -665,6 +665,8 @@ def set_powerlimits(self, lims):
             scientific notation will be used if ``exp <= min_exp`` or
             ``exp >= max_exp``.
 
+            The default limits are controlled by :rc:`axes.formatter.limits`.
+
             In particular numbers with *exp* equal to the thresholds are
             written in scientific notation.