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<div class="sphx-glr-download-link-note admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p><a class="reference internal" href="#sphx-glr-download-users-explain-customizing-py"><span class="std std-ref">Go to the end</span></a>
to download the full example code.</p>
</div>
<section class="sphx-glr-example-title" id="customizing-matplotlib-with-style-sheets-and-rcparams">
<span id="customizing"></span><span id="sphx-glr-users-explain-customizing-py"></span><h1>Customizing Matplotlib with style sheets and rcParams<a class="headerlink" href="#customizing-matplotlib-with-style-sheets-and-rcparams" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h1>
<p>Tips for customizing the properties and default styles of Matplotlib.</p>
<p>There are three ways to customize Matplotlib:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-with-dynamic-rc-settings"><span class="std std-ref">Setting rcParams at runtime</span></a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-with-style-sheets"><span class="std std-ref">Using style sheets</span></a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-with-matplotlibrc-files"><span class="std std-ref">Changing your matplotlibrc file</span></a>.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Setting rcParams at runtime takes precedence over style sheets, style
sheets take precedence over <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> files.</p>
<section id="runtime-rc-settings">
<span id="customizing-with-dynamic-rc-settings"></span><h2>Runtime rc settings<a class="headerlink" href="#runtime-rc-settings" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>You can dynamically change the default rc (runtime configuration)
settings in a python script or interactively from the python shell. All
rc settings are stored in a dictionary-like variable called
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams" title="matplotlib.rcParams"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcParams</span></code></a>, which is global to the matplotlib package.
See <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams" title="matplotlib.rcParams"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcParams</span></code></a> for a full list of configurable rcParams.
rcParams can be modified directly, for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">cycler</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <a href="https://matplotlib.org/cycler/generated/cycler.cycler.html#cycler.cycler" title="cycler.cycler" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-cycler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">cycler</span></a>
<span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">numpy</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">np</span>
<span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">mpl</span>
<a href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.RcParams" title="matplotlib.RcParams" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rcParams</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'lines.linewidth'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">2</span>
<a href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.RcParams" title="matplotlib.RcParams" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rcParams</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'lines.linestyle'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'--'</span>
<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/random/generated/numpy.random.randn.html#numpy.random.randn" title="numpy.random.randn" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy-random sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">random</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">randn</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">50</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_001.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_001.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_001_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>Note, that in order to change the usual <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">plot</span></code></a> color you have to
change the <em>prop_cycle</em> property of <em>axes</em>:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.RcParams" title="matplotlib.RcParams" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rcParams</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'axes.prop_cycle'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://matplotlib.org/cycler/generated/cycler.cycler.html#cycler.cycler" title="cycler.cycler" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-cycler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">cycler</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'r'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'g'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'b'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'y'</span><span class="p">])</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># first color is red</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_002.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_002.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_002_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>Matplotlib also provides a couple of convenience functions for modifying rc
settings. <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rc" title="matplotlib.rc"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rc</span></code></a> can be used to modify multiple
settings in a single group at once, using keyword arguments:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rc" title="matplotlib.rc" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rc</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'lines'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">linewidth</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">linestyle</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'-.'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_003.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_003.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_003_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><section id="temporary-rc-settings">
<h3>Temporary rc settings<a class="headerlink" href="#temporary-rc-settings" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams" title="matplotlib.rcParams"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcParams</span></code></a> object can also be changed temporarily using
the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rc_context" title="matplotlib.rc_context"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rc_context</span></code></a> context manager:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">with</span> <a href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rc_context" title="matplotlib.rc_context" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rc_context</span></a><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">'lines.linewidth'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'lines.linestyle'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">':'</span><span class="p">}):</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_004.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_004.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_004_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rc_context" title="matplotlib.rc_context"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rc_context</span></code></a> can also be used as a decorator to modify the
defaults within a function:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@mpl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">rc_context</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">'lines.linewidth'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'lines.linestyle'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'-'</span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">plotting_function</span><span class="p">():</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">data</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">plotting_function</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_005.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_005.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_005_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcdefaults" title="matplotlib.rcdefaults"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcdefaults</span></code></a> will restore the standard Matplotlib
default settings.</p>
<p>There is some degree of validation when setting the values of rcParams, see
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/rcsetup_api.html#module-matplotlib.rcsetup" title="matplotlib.rcsetup"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcsetup</span></code></a> for details.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="using-style-sheets">
<span id="customizing-with-style-sheets"></span><h2>Using style sheets<a class="headerlink" href="#using-style-sheets" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Another way to change the visual appearance of plots is to set the
rcParams in a so-called style sheet and import that style sheet with
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/style_api.html#matplotlib.style.use" title="matplotlib.style.use"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.style.use</span></code></a>. In this way you can switch easily between
different styles by simply changing the imported style sheet. A style
sheets looks the same as a <a class="reference internal" href="#matplotlibrc-sample"><span class="std std-ref">matplotlibrc</span></a>
file, but in a style sheet you can only set rcParams that are related
to the actual style of a plot. Other rcParams, like <em>backend</em>, will be
ignored. <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> files support all rcParams. The
rationale behind this is to make style sheets portable between
different machines without having to worry about dependencies which
might or might not be installed on another machine. For a full list of
rcParams see <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams" title="matplotlib.rcParams"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcParams</span></code></a>. For a list of rcParams that are
ignored in style sheets see <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/style_api.html#matplotlib.style.use" title="matplotlib.style.use"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.style.use</span></code></a>.</p>
<p>There are a number of pre-defined styles <a class="reference internal" href="../../gallery/style_sheets/style_sheets_reference.html"><span class="doc">provided by Matplotlib</span></a>. For
example, there's a pre-defined style called "ggplot", which emulates the
aesthetics of <a class="reference external" href="https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/">ggplot</a> (a popular plotting package for <a class="reference external" href="https://www.r-project.org/">R</a>). To use this
style, add:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">use</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'ggplot'</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To list all available styles, use:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#list" title="builtins.list" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">available</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="sphx-glr-script-out highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>['Solarize_Light2', '_classic_test_patch', '_mpl-gallery', '_mpl-gallery-nogrid', 'bmh', 'classic', 'dark_background', 'fast', 'fivethirtyeight', 'ggplot', 'grayscale', 'petroff10', 'seaborn-v0_8', 'seaborn-v0_8-bright', 'seaborn-v0_8-colorblind', 'seaborn-v0_8-dark', 'seaborn-v0_8-dark-palette', 'seaborn-v0_8-darkgrid', 'seaborn-v0_8-deep', 'seaborn-v0_8-muted', 'seaborn-v0_8-notebook', 'seaborn-v0_8-paper', 'seaborn-v0_8-pastel', 'seaborn-v0_8-poster', 'seaborn-v0_8-talk', 'seaborn-v0_8-ticks', 'seaborn-v0_8-white', 'seaborn-v0_8-whitegrid', 'tableau-colorblind10']
</pre></div>
</div>
<section id="defining-your-own-style">
<h3>Defining your own style<a class="headerlink" href="#defining-your-own-style" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>You can create custom styles and use them by calling <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/style_api.html#matplotlib.style.use" title="matplotlib.style.use"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">style.use</span></code></a> with
the path or URL to the style sheet.</p>
<p>For example, you might want to create
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">./images/presentation.mplstyle</span></code> with the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">axes</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">titlesize</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">24</span>
<span class="n">axes</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">labelsize</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">20</span>
<span class="n">lines</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">linewidth</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">3</span>
<span class="n">lines</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">markersize</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">10</span>
<span class="n">xtick</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">labelsize</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">16</span>
<span class="n">ytick</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">labelsize</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">16</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Then, when you want to adapt a plot designed for a paper to one that looks
good in a presentation, you can just add:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">use</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'./images/presentation.mplstyle'</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="distributing-styles">
<h3>Distributing styles<a class="headerlink" href="#distributing-styles" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>You can include style sheets into standard importable Python packages (which
can be e.g. distributed on PyPI). If your package is importable as
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">import</span> <span class="pre">mypackage</span></code>, with a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mypackage/__init__.py</span></code> module, and you add
a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mypackage/presentation.mplstyle</span></code> style sheet, then it can be used as
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">plt.style.use("mypackage.presentation")</span></code>. Subpackages (e.g.
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dotted.package.name</span></code>) are also supported.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can make your style known to Matplotlib by placing
your <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre"><style-name>.mplstyle</span></code> file into <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpl_configdir/stylelib</span></code>. You
can then load your custom style sheet with a call to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">style.use(<style-name>)</span></code>. By default <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpl_configdir</span></code> should be
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">~/.config/matplotlib</span></code>, but you can check where yours is with
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.get_configdir" title="matplotlib.get_configdir"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.get_configdir()</span></code></a>; you may need to create this directory. You
also can change the directory where Matplotlib looks for the stylelib/
folder by setting the <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../../install/environment_variables_faq.html#envvar-MPLCONFIGDIR"><code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MPLCONFIGDIR</span></code></a> environment variable, see
<a class="reference internal" href="../../install/index.html#locating-matplotlib-config-dir"><span class="std std-ref">matplotlib configuration and cache directory locations</span></a>.</p>
<p>Note that a custom style sheet in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpl_configdir/stylelib</span></code> will override a
style sheet defined by Matplotlib if the styles have the same name.</p>
<p>Once your <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre"><style-name>.mplstyle</span></code> file is in the appropriate
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mpl_configdir</span></code> you can specify your style with:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">use</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="o">></span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="composing-styles">
<h3>Composing styles<a class="headerlink" href="#composing-styles" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>Style sheets are designed to be composed together. So you can have a style
sheet that customizes colors and a separate style sheet that alters element
sizes for presentations. These styles can easily be combined by passing
a list of styles:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">use</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">'dark_background'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'presentation'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that styles further to the right will overwrite values that are already
defined by styles on the left.</p>
</section>
<section id="temporary-styling">
<h3>Temporary styling<a class="headerlink" href="#temporary-styling" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>If you only want to use a style for a specific block of code but don't want
to change the global styling, the style package provides a context manager
for limiting your changes to a specific scope. To isolate your styling
changes, you can write something like the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">style</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">context</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'dark_background'</span><span class="p">):</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html#matplotlib.pyplot.plot" title="matplotlib.pyplot.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ufunc.html#numpy.ufunc" title="numpy.ufunc" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sin</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.linspace.html#numpy.linspace" title="numpy.linspace" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">linspace</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span> <span class="o">*</span> <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#float" title="builtins.float" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">pi</span></a><span class="p">)),</span> <span class="s1">'r-o'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="matplotlib.pyplot.show" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_006.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_006.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_customizing_006_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="customizing" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/></section>
</section>
<section id="the-matplotlibrc-file">
<span id="customizing-with-matplotlibrc-files"></span><h2>The <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> file<a class="headerlink" href="#the-matplotlibrc-file" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Matplotlib uses <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> configuration files to customize all
kinds of properties, which we call 'rc settings' or 'rc parameters'. You can
control the defaults of almost every property in Matplotlib: figure size and
DPI, line width, color and style, Axes, axis and grid properties, text and
font properties and so on. The <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> is read at startup to
configure Matplotlib. Matplotlib looks for <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> in four
locations, in the following order:</p>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p><code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> in the current working directory, usually used for
specific customizations that you do not want to apply elsewhere.</p></li>
<li><p><code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$MATPLOTLIBRC</span></code> if it is a file, else
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$MATPLOTLIBRC/matplotlibrc</span></code>.</p></li>
<li><p>It next looks in a user-specific place, depending on your platform:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>On Linux and FreeBSD, it looks in
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.config/matplotlib/matplotlibrc</span></code> (or
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/matplotlib/matplotlibrc</span></code>) if you've customized
your environment.</p></li>
<li><p>On other platforms, it looks in <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.matplotlib/matplotlibrc</span></code>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>See <a class="reference internal" href="../../install/index.html#locating-matplotlib-config-dir"><span class="std std-ref">matplotlib configuration and cache directory locations</span></a>.</p>
</li>
<li><p><code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><em><span class="pre">INSTALL</span></em><span class="pre">/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc</span></code>, where
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><em><span class="pre">INSTALL</span></em></code> is something like
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages</span></code> on Linux, and maybe
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C:\Python310\Lib\site-packages</span></code> on Windows. Every time you
install matplotlib, this file will be overwritten, so if you want
your customizations to be saved, please move this file to your
user-specific matplotlib directory.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Once a <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> file has been found, it will <em>not</em> search
any of the other paths. When a
<a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-with-style-sheets"><span class="std std-ref">style sheet</span></a> is given with
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">style.use('<path>/<style-name>.mplstyle')</span></code>, settings specified in
the style sheet take precedence over settings in the
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> file.</p>
<p>To display where the currently active <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> file was
loaded from, one can do the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">matplotlib_fname</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">'/home/foo/.config/matplotlib/matplotlibrc'</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See below for a sample <a class="reference internal" href="#matplotlibrc-sample"><span class="std std-ref">matplotlibrc file</span></a>
and see <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams" title="matplotlib.rcParams"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.rcParams</span></code></a> for a full list of configurable rcParams.</p>
<section id="the-default-matplotlibrc-file">
<span id="matplotlibrc-sample"></span><h3>The default <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlibrc</span></code> file<a class="headerlink" href="#the-default-matplotlibrc-file" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h3>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c1">#### MATPLOTLIBRC FORMAT</span>
<span class="c1">## NOTE FOR END USERS: DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## This is a sample Matplotlib configuration file - you can find a copy</span>
<span class="c1">## of it on your system in site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc</span>
<span class="c1">## (relative to your Python installation location).</span>
<span class="c1">## DO NOT EDIT IT!</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## If you wish to change your default style, copy this file to one of the</span>
<span class="c1">## following locations:</span>
<span class="c1">## Unix/Linux:</span>
<span class="c1">## $HOME/.config/matplotlib/matplotlibrc OR</span>
<span class="c1">## $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/matplotlib/matplotlibrc (if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)</span>
<span class="c1">## Other platforms:</span>
<span class="c1">## $HOME/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc</span>
<span class="c1">## and edit that copy.</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## See https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/explain/customizing.html#customizing-with-matplotlibrc-files</span>
<span class="c1">## for more details on the paths which are checked for the configuration file.</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## Blank lines, or lines starting with a comment symbol, are ignored, as are</span>
<span class="c1">## trailing comments. Other lines must have the format:</span>
<span class="c1">## key: val # optional comment</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## Formatting: Use PEP8-like style (as enforced in the rest of the codebase).</span>
<span class="c1">## All lines start with an additional '#', so that removing all leading '#'s</span>
<span class="c1">## yields a valid style file.</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## Colors: for the color values below, you can either use</span>
<span class="c1">## - a Matplotlib color string, such as r, k, or b</span>
<span class="c1">## - an RGB tuple, such as (1.0, 0.5, 0.0)</span>
<span class="c1">## - a double-quoted hex string, such as "#ff00ff".</span>
<span class="c1">## The unquoted string ff00ff is also supported for backward</span>
<span class="c1">## compatibility, but is discouraged.</span>
<span class="c1">## - a scalar grayscale intensity such as 0.75</span>
<span class="c1">## - a legal html color name, e.g., red, blue, darkslategray</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## String values may optionally be enclosed in double quotes, which allows</span>
<span class="c1">## using the comment character # in the string.</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## This file (and other style files) must be encoded as utf-8.</span>
<span class="c1">##</span>
<span class="c1">## Matplotlib configuration are currently divided into following parts:</span>
<span class="c1">## - BACKENDS</span>
<span class="c1">## - LINES</span>
<span class="c1">## - PATCHES</span>
<span class="c1">## - HATCHES</span>
<span class="c1">## - BOXPLOT</span>
<span class="c1">## - FONT</span>
<span class="c1">## - TEXT</span>
<span class="c1">## - LaTeX</span>
<span class="c1">## - AXES</span>
<span class="c1">## - DATES</span>
<span class="c1">## - TICKS</span>
<span class="c1">## - GRIDS</span>
<span class="c1">## - LEGEND</span>
<span class="c1">## - FIGURE</span>
<span class="c1">## - IMAGES</span>
<span class="c1">## - CONTOUR PLOTS</span>
<span class="c1">## - ERRORBAR PLOTS</span>
<span class="c1">## - HISTOGRAM PLOTS</span>
<span class="c1">## - SCATTER PLOTS</span>
<span class="c1">## - AGG RENDERING</span>
<span class="c1">## - PATHS</span>
<span class="c1">## - SAVING FIGURES</span>
<span class="c1">## - INTERACTIVE KEYMAPS</span>
<span class="c1">## - ANIMATION</span>
<span class="c1">##### CONFIGURATION BEGINS HERE</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## * BACKENDS *</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## The default backend. If you omit this parameter, the first working</span>
<span class="c1">## backend from the following list is used:</span>
<span class="c1">## MacOSX QtAgg Gtk4Agg Gtk3Agg TkAgg WxAgg Agg</span>
<span class="c1">## Other choices include:</span>
<span class="c1">## QtCairo GTK4Cairo GTK3Cairo TkCairo WxCairo Cairo</span>
<span class="c1">## Qt5Agg Qt5Cairo Wx # deprecated.</span>
<span class="c1">## PS PDF SVG Template</span>
<span class="c1">## You can also deploy your own backend outside of Matplotlib by referring to</span>
<span class="c1">## the module name (which must be in the PYTHONPATH) as 'module://my_backend'.</span>
<span class="c1">##backend: Agg</span>
<span class="c1">## The port to use for the web server in the WebAgg backend.</span>
<span class="c1">#webagg.port: 8988</span>
<span class="c1">## The address on which the WebAgg web server should be reachable</span>
<span class="c1">#webagg.address: 127.0.0.1</span>
<span class="c1">## If webagg.port is unavailable, a number of other random ports will</span>
<span class="c1">## be tried until one that is available is found.</span>
<span class="c1">#webagg.port_retries: 50</span>
<span class="c1">## When True, open the web browser to the plot that is shown</span>
<span class="c1">#webagg.open_in_browser: True</span>
<span class="c1">## If you are running pyplot inside a GUI and your backend choice</span>
<span class="c1">## conflicts, we will automatically try to find a compatible one for</span>
<span class="c1">## you if backend_fallback is True</span>
<span class="c1">#backend_fallback: True</span>
<span class="c1">#interactive: False</span>
<span class="c1">#figure.hooks: # list of dotted.module.name:dotted.callable.name</span>
<span class="c1">#toolbar: toolbar2 # {None, toolbar2, toolmanager}</span>
<span class="c1">#timezone: UTC # a pytz timezone string, e.g., US/Central or Europe/Paris</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## * LINES *</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## See https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/artist_api.html#module-matplotlib.lines</span>
<span class="c1">## for more information on line properties.</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.linewidth: 1.5 # line width in points</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.linestyle: - # solid line</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.color: C0 # has no affect on plot(); see axes.prop_cycle</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.marker: None # the default marker</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.markerfacecolor: auto # the default marker face color</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.markeredgecolor: auto # the default marker edge color</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.markeredgewidth: 1.0 # the line width around the marker symbol</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.markersize: 6 # marker size, in points</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.dash_joinstyle: round # {miter, round, bevel}</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.dash_capstyle: butt # {butt, round, projecting}</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.solid_joinstyle: round # {miter, round, bevel}</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.solid_capstyle: projecting # {butt, round, projecting}</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.antialiased: True # render lines in antialiased (no jaggies)</span>
<span class="c1">## The three standard dash patterns. These are scaled by the linewidth.</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.dashed_pattern: 3.7, 1.6</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.dashdot_pattern: 6.4, 1.6, 1, 1.6</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.dotted_pattern: 1, 1.65</span>
<span class="c1">#lines.scale_dashes: True</span>
<span class="c1">#markers.fillstyle: full # {full, left, right, bottom, top, none}</span>
<span class="c1">#pcolor.shading: auto</span>
<span class="c1">#pcolormesh.snap: True # Whether to snap the mesh to pixel boundaries. This is</span>
<span class="c1"># provided solely to allow old test images to remain</span>
<span class="c1"># unchanged. Set to False to obtain the previous behavior.</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## * PATCHES *</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## Patches are graphical objects that fill 2D space, like polygons or circles.</span>
<span class="c1">## See https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/artist_api.html#module-matplotlib.patches</span>
<span class="c1">## for more information on patch properties.</span>
<span class="c1">#patch.linewidth: 1.0 # edge width in points.</span>
<span class="c1">#patch.facecolor: C0</span>
<span class="c1">#patch.edgecolor: black # By default, Patches and Collections do not draw edges.</span>
<span class="c1"># This value is only used if facecolor is "none"</span>
<span class="c1"># (an Artist without facecolor and edgecolor would be</span>
<span class="c1"># invisible) or if patch.force_edgecolor is True.</span>
<span class="c1">#patch.force_edgecolor: False # By default, Patches and Collections do not draw edges.</span>
<span class="c1"># Set this to True to draw edges with patch.edgedcolor</span>
<span class="c1"># as the default edgecolor.</span>
<span class="c1"># This is mainly relevant for styles.</span>
<span class="c1">#patch.antialiased: True # render patches in antialiased (no jaggies)</span>
<span class="c1">## ***************************************************************************</span>
<span class="c1">## * HATCHES *</span>