Getting started

The idea behing this library is that the user should only set the parameters for the current latex setup once and then proceed to use matplotlib with minimal changes.

Basic Usage

The first step is to initialize the library by specifying:

  • width of the text in inches

  • width of the line in inches (might be different from text if using two columns)

  • medium size of the font

  • expected dpi of the images

While these informations can be specified manually, some presets are already present in the library (see Formats for a list of available presets). By using these presets, the library can be initialized as follows:

import matplotlib_latex_bridge as mlb

mlb.setup_page(**mlb.formats.article_letterpaper_10pt_singlecolumn)

Note: for better results, LaTeX rendering for text is enabled by default, unless no working latex installation is detected. To disable this behaviour, pass usetex=False to setup_page (see matplotlib_latex_bridge.setup_page() and matplotlib_latex_bridge.set_font_family()).

After the library has been initialized, new figures should be created using two library functions that take care of setting the right sizes:

fig = mlb.figure_textwidth()  # for full page images
fig = mlb.figure_columnwidth()  # for full column images

# from now on use matplotlib as normal
plt.plot(...)

fig.savefig("image.png")

Note: the figure should be saved via savefig, as using show may alter the shape/scale of the figure.

Figures created like this should be included in the latex file without scaling:

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[scale=1]{image.png}
\end{figure}

Customization

If there is no preset for your page format, or if you want more control over the size of the images generated, you must manually specify the parameters for the matplotlib_latex_bridge.setup_page() function.

The textwidth and columnwidth parameters are the width of the page and the column, respectively. These two values are the same for single column documents, but they are different for multi-column environments. The values for the current page layout can be found using the layouts latex package:

\usepackage{layouts}

\begin{document}

textwidth: \printinunitsof{in}\prntlen{\textwidth}

columnwidth: \printinunitsof{in}\prntlen{\columnwidth}

\end{document}

The fontsize is the average text font, usually its value is set to the one specified with the documentclass command, like in

\documentclass[letterpaper, 10pt]{article}

All these values can be gathered directly from the LaTeX processor, using matplotlib_latex_bridge.get_format_from_latex(), if a working LaTeX installation is present.

A more fine-grained control over the font sizes can be achieved by using matplotlib_latex_bridge.set_font_sizes() and matplotlib_latex_bridge.set_font_family().

The dpi dipend on many factors, and a certain dpi may be a requirement for publication. In general, a dpi >= 400 ensures a sharp image in most situations.