Matplotlib styles for scientific plotting
This repo has Matplotlib styles to format your plots for scientific papers, presentations and theses.
The easiest way to install SciencePlots is using pip
:
# for latest version
pip install git+https://github.com/garrettj403/SciencePlots.git
# for last release
pip install SciencePlots
The pip installation will automatically move all of the *.mplstyle
files into the appropriate directory. You can also do this manually, if you like. First, clone the repository and then copy all of the *.mplstyle
files into your Matplotlib style directory. If you're not sure where this is, in an interactive python console type:
import matplotlib
print(matplotlib.get_configdir())
You should get back something like /home/garrett/.matplotlib
. You would then put the *.mplstyle
files in /home/garrett/.matplotlib/stylelib/
(you may need to create the stylelib
directory).
science.mplstyle
is the main style from this repo. Whenever you want to use it, simply add the following to the top of your python script:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use('science')
You can also combine multiple styles together by:
plt.style.use(['science','ieee'])
In this case, the ieee
style will override some of the parameters from the main science
style in order to configure the plot for IEEE papers (column width, fontsizes, etc.).
To use any of the styles temporarily, you can use:
with plt.style.context(['science', 'ieee']):
plt.figure()
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()
The science
style (the base style):
The science
+ grid
styles:
The science
+ ieee
styles for IEEE papers:
IEEE requires figures to be readable when printed in black and white. The ieee
style also sets the figure width to fit within one column of an IEEE paper.
The science
+ scatter
styles for scatter plots:
The science
+ notebook
styles for Jupyter notebooks:
You can also combine these styles with the other styles that come with Matplotlib. For example, the dark_background
+ science
+ high-vis
styles:
Note: See the examples/
directory for more!
The high-vis
color cycle:
The bright
color cycle:
The vibrant
color cycle:
The muted
color cycle:
The retro
color cycle:
Note: The bright
, vibrant
and muted
color cycles are from Paul Tol's website. They are color-blind safe!
Please feel free to add to this repo! For example, it would be good to add styles for different journals or perhaps new color cycles.
You can checkout Matplotlib's documentation for more plotting options.
-
Errors related to Latex:
-
The default
science
style uses Latex font rendering. If you do not have Latex on your computer or if you think that Latex takes too long, you can disable Latex using theno-latex
style:plt.style.use(['science','no-latex'])
-
For Windows users, you may need to manually add Latex to your environment path (see issue).
-
The following papers use SciencePlots
:
-
J. Garrett, et al., "A Nonlinear Transmission Line Model for Simulating Distributed SIS Frequency Multipliers," IEEE Trans. THz Sci. Technol., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 246-255, May 2020. (open access)
-
J. Garrett, et al., "Simulating the Behavior of a 230 GHz SIS Mixer Using Multi-Tone Spectral Domain Analysis," IEEE Trans. THz Sci. Technol., vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 540-548, Nov. 2019. (open access)
-
J. Garrett, et al., "A Compact and Easy to Fabricate E-plane Waveguide Bend," IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 529-531, Aug. 2019. (open access)
-
J. Garrett, "A 230 GHz Focal Plane Array Using a Wide IF Bandwidth SIS Receiver," DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, 2018. (open access)
If you use SciencePlots
for your paper/thesis, feel free to add it to the list!