Matplotlib subplots_adjust hspace so titles and xlabels don't overlap?

With, say, 3 rows of subplots in matplotlib, xlabels of one row can overlap the title of the next. One has to fiddle with pl.subplots_adjust(hspace), which is annoying.

Is there a recipe for hspace that prevents overlaps and works for any nrow?

""" matplotlib xlabels overlap titles ? """
import sys
import numpy as np
import pylab as pl

nrow = 3
hspace = .4  # of plot height, titles and xlabels both fall within this ??
exec "\n".join( sys.argv[1:] )  # nrow= ...

y = np.arange(10)
pl.subplots_adjust( hspace=hspace )

for jrow in range( 1, nrow+1 ):
    pl.subplot( nrow, 1, jrow )
    pl.plot( y**jrow )
    pl.title( 5 * ("title %d " % jrow) )
    pl.xlabel( 5 * ("xlabel %d " % jrow) )

pl.show()

My versions:

• matplotlib 0.99.1.1,
• Python 2.6.4,
• Mac OSX 10.4.11,
• backend: Qt4Agg (TkAgg => Exception in Tkinter callback)

(For many extra points, can anyone outline how matplotlib's packer / spacer works, along the lines of chapter 17 "the packer" in the Tcl/Tk book?)

Solution 1:

You can use plt.subplots_adjust to change the spacing between the subplots Link

subplots_adjust(left=None, bottom=None, right=None, top=None, wspace=None, hspace=None)

left  = 0.125  # the left side of the subplots of the figure
right = 0.9    # the right side of the subplots of the figure
bottom = 0.1   # the bottom of the subplots of the figure
top = 0.9      # the top of the subplots of the figure
wspace = 0.2   # the amount of width reserved for blank space between subplots
hspace = 0.2   # the amount of height reserved for white space between subplots

Solution 2:

The link posted by Jose has been updated and pylab now has a tight_layout() function that does this automatically (in matplotlib version 1.1.0).

http://matplotlib.org/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.tight_layout

http://matplotlib.org/users/tight_layout_guide.html#plotting-guide-tight-layout