Book Image

Matplotlib 2.x By Example

By : Allen Yu, Claire Chung, Aldrin Yim
Book Image

Matplotlib 2.x By Example

By: Allen Yu, Claire Chung, Aldrin Yim

Overview of this book

Big data analytics are driving innovations in scientific research, digital marketing, policy-making and much more. Matplotlib offers simple but powerful plotting interface, versatile plot types and robust customization. Matplotlib 2.x By Example illustrates the methods and applications of various plot types through real world examples. It begins by giving readers the basic know-how on how to create and customize plots by Matplotlib. It further covers how to plot different types of economic data in the form of 2D and 3D graphs, which give insights from a deluge of data from public repositories, such as Quandl Finance. You will learn to visualize geographical data on maps and implement interactive charts. By the end of this book, you will become well versed with Matplotlib in your day-to-day work to perform advanced data visualization. This book will guide you to prepare high quality figures for manuscripts and presentations. You will learn to create intuitive info-graphics and reshaping your message crisply understandable.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

General rules of effective visualization


In Chapter 2, Figure Aesthetics, we briefly introduced ways to fine-tune figure aesthetics, focusing more on the coding techniques. Before a deeper discussion of science-specific plotting skills, we would like to introduce some general guidelines for making effective visuals.

Planning your figure

I have my numbers. I have my plot recipes. Now what? Plo... Wait a minute. To plot or not to plot? That is the question. We are not switching to philosophy or literature. Scientific figures are not simply decorations to add colors to your manuscript or presentation, but should each bring out a unique message.

To achieve this, it is essential for us to consider the context when planning our figures. Just like writing essays, we can do so by thinking about the 6Ws--"Why", "What", "Who", "When", "Where", and "How".

Do we need the plot?

We set out plotting a graph by knowing its purpose: "why". In preparing manuscripts to submit to journals, slideshows, or poster...