-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 60
Expand file tree
/
Copy pathlegend_guide.html
More file actions
874 lines (659 loc) · 90.7 KB
/
legend_guide.html
File metadata and controls
874 lines (659 loc) · 90.7 KB
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /><meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.19: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/" />
<meta content="codex" name="keywords" />
<title>Legend guide — Matplotlib 3.6.3 documentation</title>
<script data-cfasync="false">
document.documentElement.dataset.mode = localStorage.getItem("mode") || "";
document.documentElement.dataset.theme = localStorage.getItem("theme") || "light";
</script>
<!-- Loaded before other Sphinx assets -->
<link href="../../_static/styles/theme.css?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../_static/styles/bootstrap.css?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../_static/styles/pydata-sphinx-theme.css?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="../../_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.1.2/css/all.min.css?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94" rel="stylesheet">
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="../../_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.1.2/webfonts/fa-solid-900.woff2">
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="../../_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.1.2/webfonts/fa-brands-400.woff2">
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="../../_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.1.2/webfonts/fa-regular-400.woff2">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/pygments.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/css/style.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/graphviz.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/plot_directive.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/copybutton.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/sg_gallery.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/sg_gallery-binder.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/sg_gallery-dataframe.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/sg_gallery-rendered-html.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/design-style.4045f2051d55cab465a707391d5b2007.min.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../_static/mpl.css?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86" />
<!-- Pre-loaded scripts that we'll load fully later -->
<link rel="preload" as="script" href="../../_static/scripts/bootstrap.js?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94">
<link rel="preload" as="script" href="../../_static/scripts/pydata-sphinx-theme.js?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94">
<script data-url_root="../../" id="documentation_options" src="../../_static/documentation_options.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/jquery.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/underscore.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/_sphinx_javascript_frameworks_compat.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/doctools.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/clipboard.min.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/copybutton.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script src="../../_static/design-tabs.js?v3.6.3-3-g655f616e86"></script>
<script data-domain="matplotlib.org" defer="defer" src="https://views.scientific-python.org/js/script.js"></script>
<script>DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS.pagename = 'tutorials/intermediate/legend_guide';</script>
<script>
DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS.theme_switcher_json_url = 'https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/_static/switcher.json';
DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS.theme_switcher_version_match = '3.6.3';
</script>
<link rel="canonical" href="https://matplotlib.org/stable/tutorials/intermediate/legend_guide.html" />
<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
title="Search within Matplotlib 3.6.3 documentation"
href="../../_static/opensearch.xml"/>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="../../_static/favicon.ico"/>
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="../../search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="Styling with cycler" href="color_cycle.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="Artist tutorial" href="artists.html" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<meta name="docsearch:language" content="en">
</head>
<body data-spy="scroll" data-target="#bd-toc-nav" data-offset="180" data-default-mode="">
<a class="skip-link" href="#main-content">Skip to main content</a>
<input type="checkbox" class="sidebar-toggle" name="__primary" id="__primary">
<label class="overlay overlay-primary" for="__primary"></label>
<input type="checkbox" class="sidebar-toggle" name="__secondary" id="__secondary">
<label class="overlay overlay-secondary" for="__secondary"></label>
<div class="search-button__wrapper">
<div class="search-button__overlay"></div>
<div class="search-button__search-container">
<form class="bd-search d-flex align-items-center" action="../../search.html" method="get">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
<input type="search" class="form-control" name="q" id="search-input" placeholder="Search the docs ..." aria-label="Search the docs ..." autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off" autocapitalize="off" spellcheck="false">
<span class="search-button__kbd-shortcut"><kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>K</kbd></span>
</form>
</div>
</div>
<nav class="bd-header navbar navbar-expand-lg bd-navbar" id="navbar-main"><div class="bd-header__inner bd-page-width">
<label class="sidebar-toggle primary-toggle" for="__primary">
<span class="fa-solid fa-bars"></span>
</label>
<div id="navbar-start">
<a class="navbar-brand logo" href="../../index.html">
<img src="../../_static/images/logo2.svg" class="logo__image only-light" alt="Logo image">
<img src="../../_static/images/logo_dark.svg" class="logo__image only-dark" alt="Logo image">
</a>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-9 navbar-header-items">
<div id="navbar-center" class="mr-auto">
<div class="navbar-center-item">
<ul id="navbar-main-elements" class="navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../plot_types/index.html">Plot types</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../gallery/index.html">Examples</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../index.html">Tutorials</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../api/index.html">Reference</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../users/index.html">User guide</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../devel/index.html">Develop</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../users/release_notes.html">Release notes</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="navbar-end">
<div class="navbar-end-item navbar-persistent--container">
<button class="btn btn-sm navbar-btn search-button search-button__button" title="Search" aria-label="Search" data-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
</button>
</div>
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<button class="theme-switch-button btn btn-sm btn-outline-primary navbar-btn rounded-circle" title="light/dark" aria-label="light/dark" data-toggle="tooltip">
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="light"><i class="fa-solid fa-sun"></i></span>
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="dark"><i class="fa-solid fa-moon"></i></span>
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="auto"><i class="fa-solid fa-circle-half-stroke"></i></span>
</button>
</div>
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<div class="version-switcher__container dropdown">
<button type="button" class="version-switcher__button btn btn-sm navbar-btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
stable <!-- this text may get changed later by javascript -->
<span class="caret"></span>
</button>
<div class="version-switcher__menu dropdown-menu list-group-flush py-0">
<!-- dropdown will be populated by javascript on page load -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<ul id="navbar-icon-links" class="navbar-nav" aria-label="Icon Links">
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://gitter.im/matplotlib/matplotlib" title="Gitter" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-gitter"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Gitter</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://discourse.matplotlib.org" title="Discourse" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-discourse"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Discourse</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib" title="GitHub" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-github"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">GitHub</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://twitter.com/matplotlib/" title="Twitter" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Twitter</label></a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-persistent--mobile">
<button class="btn btn-sm navbar-btn search-button search-button__button" title="Search" aria-label="Search" data-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
</button>
</div>
<label class="sidebar-toggle secondary-toggle" for="__secondary">
<span class="fa-solid fa-outdent"></span>
</label>
</div>
</nav>
<div class="bd-container">
<div class="bd-container__inner bd-page-width">
<div class="bd-sidebar-primary bd-sidebar">
<div class="sidebar-header-items sidebar-primary__section">
<div class="sidebar-header-items__center">
<div class="navbar-center-item">
<ul id="navbar-main-elements" class="navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../plot_types/index.html">Plot types</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../gallery/index.html">Examples</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../index.html">Tutorials</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../api/index.html">Reference</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../users/index.html">User guide</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../devel/index.html">Develop</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="../../users/release_notes.html">Release notes</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-header-items__end">
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<button class="theme-switch-button btn btn-sm btn-outline-primary navbar-btn rounded-circle" title="light/dark" aria-label="light/dark" data-toggle="tooltip">
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="light"><i class="fa-solid fa-sun"></i></span>
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="dark"><i class="fa-solid fa-moon"></i></span>
<span class="theme-switch" data-mode="auto"><i class="fa-solid fa-circle-half-stroke"></i></span>
</button>
</div>
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<div class="version-switcher__container dropdown">
<button type="button" class="version-switcher__button btn btn-sm navbar-btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
stable <!-- this text may get changed later by javascript -->
<span class="caret"></span>
</button>
<div class="version-switcher__menu dropdown-menu list-group-flush py-0">
<!-- dropdown will be populated by javascript on page load -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-end-item">
<ul id="navbar-icon-links" class="navbar-nav" aria-label="Icon Links">
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://gitter.im/matplotlib/matplotlib" title="Gitter" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-gitter"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Gitter</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://discourse.matplotlib.org" title="Discourse" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-discourse"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Discourse</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib" title="GitHub" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-github"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">GitHub</label></a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://twitter.com/matplotlib/" title="Twitter" class="nav-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-toggle="tooltip"><span><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></span>
<label class="sr-only">Twitter</label></a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-start-items sidebar-primary__section">
<div class="sidebar-start-items__item"><nav class="bd-links" id="bd-docs-nav" aria-label="Section navigation">
<p class="bd-links__title" role="heading" aria-level="1">
Section Navigation
</p>
<div class="bd-toc-item navbar-nav">
<ul class="current nav bd-sidenav">
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/index.html">Introductory</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-1" name="toctree-checkbox-1" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-1"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/quick_start.html">Quick start guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/pyplot.html">Pyplot tutorial</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/images.html">Image tutorial</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/lifecycle.html">The Lifecycle of a Plot</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../introductory/customizing.html">Customizing Matplotlib with style sheets and rcParams</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 current active has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html">Intermediate</a><input checked="" class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-2" name="toctree-checkbox-2" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-2"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="artists.html">Artist tutorial</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2 current active"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Legend guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="color_cycle.html">Styling with cycler</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="constrainedlayout_guide.html">Constrained Layout Guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tight_layout_guide.html">Tight Layout guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="arranging_axes.html">Arranging multiple Axes in a Figure</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="autoscale.html">Autoscaling</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="imshow_extent.html"><em>origin</em> and <em>extent</em> in <code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">imshow</span></code></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/index.html">Advanced</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-3" name="toctree-checkbox-3" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-3"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/blitting.html">Faster rendering by using blitting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/path_tutorial.html">Path Tutorial</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/patheffects_guide.html">Path effects guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/transforms_tutorial.html">Transformations Tutorial</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/index.html">Colors</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-4" name="toctree-checkbox-4" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-4"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colors.html">Specifying colors</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colorbar_only.html">Customized Colorbars Tutorial</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colormap-manipulation.html">Creating Colormaps in Matplotlib</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colormapnorms.html">Colormap Normalization</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../colors/colormaps.html">Choosing Colormaps in Matplotlib</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../provisional/index.html">Provisional</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-5" name="toctree-checkbox-5" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-5"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../provisional/mosaic.html">Complex and semantic figure composition</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/index.html">Text</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-6" name="toctree-checkbox-6" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-6"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/text_intro.html">Text in Matplotlib Plots</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/text_props.html">Text properties and layout</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/annotations.html">Annotations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/mathtext.html">Writing mathematical expressions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/pgf.html">Text rendering with XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX via the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pgf</span></code> backend</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../text/usetex.html">Text rendering with LaTeX</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../toolkits/index.html">Toolkits</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-7" name="toctree-checkbox-7" type="checkbox"/><label class="toctree-toggle" for="toctree-checkbox-7"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></label><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../toolkits/axes_grid.html">The axes_grid1 toolkit</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../toolkits/axisartist.html">The axisartist toolkit</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../toolkits/mplot3d.html">The mplot3d toolkit</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</nav>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-end-items sidebar-primary__section">
<div class="sidebar-end-items__item">
</div>
</div>
<div id="rtd-footer-container"></div>
</div>
<main id="main-content" class="bd-main">
<div class="bd-content">
<div class="bd-article-container">
<div class="bd-header-article">
</div>
<article class="bd-article" role="main">
<div class="sphx-glr-download-link-note admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>Click <a class="reference internal" href="#sphx-glr-download-tutorials-intermediate-legend-guide-py"><span class="std std-ref">here</span></a>
to download the full example code</p>
</div>
<section class="sphx-glr-example-title" id="legend-guide">
<span id="sphx-glr-tutorials-intermediate-legend-guide-py"></span><h1>Legend guide<a class="headerlink" href="#legend-guide" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h1>
<p>Generating legends flexibly in Matplotlib.</p>
<p>This legend guide is an extension of the documentation available at
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> - please ensure you are familiar with
contents of that documentation before proceeding with this guide.</p>
<p>This guide makes use of some common terms, which are documented here for
clarity:</p>
<dl class="simple glossary">
<dt id="term-legend-entry">legend entry<a class="headerlink" href="#term-legend-entry" title="Permalink to this term">#</a></dt><dd><p>A legend is made up of one or more legend entries. An entry is made up
of exactly one key and one label.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="term-legend-key">legend key<a class="headerlink" href="#term-legend-key" title="Permalink to this term">#</a></dt><dd><p>The colored/patterned marker to the left of each legend label.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="term-legend-label">legend label<a class="headerlink" href="#term-legend-label" title="Permalink to this term">#</a></dt><dd><p>The text which describes the handle represented by the key.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="term-legend-handle">legend handle<a class="headerlink" href="#term-legend-handle" title="Permalink to this term">#</a></dt><dd><p>The original object which is used to generate an appropriate entry in
the legend.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<section id="controlling-the-legend-entries">
<h2>Controlling the legend entries<a class="headerlink" href="#controlling-the-legend-entries" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Calling <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> with no arguments automatically fetches the legend
handles and their associated labels. This functionality is equivalent to:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">labels</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_legend_handles_labels</span><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">labels</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.get_legend_handles_labels.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.get_legend_handles_labels" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.get_legend_handles_labels"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_legend_handles_labels()</span></code></a> function returns
a list of handles/artists which exist on the Axes which can be used to
generate entries for the resulting legend - it is worth noting however that
not all artists can be added to a legend, at which point a "proxy" will have
to be created (see <a class="reference internal" href="#proxy-legend-handles"><span class="std std-ref">Creating artists specifically for adding to the legend (aka. Proxy artists)</span></a> for further details).</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>Artists with an empty string as label or with a label starting with an
underscore, "_", will be ignored.</p>
</div>
<p>For full control of what is being added to the legend, it is common to pass
the appropriate handles directly to <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">line_up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 2'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">line_down</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 1'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">line_up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">line_down</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In some cases, it is not possible to set the label of the handle, so it is
possible to pass through the list of labels to <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">line_up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 2'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">line_down</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 1'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">line_up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">line_down</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'Line Up'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'Line Down'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="creating-artists-specifically-for-adding-to-the-legend-aka-proxy-artists">
<span id="proxy-legend-handles"></span><h2>Creating artists specifically for adding to the legend (aka. Proxy artists)<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-artists-specifically-for-adding-to-the-legend-aka-proxy-artists" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Not all handles can be turned into legend entries automatically,
so it is often necessary to create an artist which <em>can</em>. Legend handles
don't have to exist on the Figure or Axes in order to be used.</p>
<p>Suppose we wanted to create a legend which has an entry for some data which
is represented by a red color:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.patches</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="nn">mpatches</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="nn">plt</span>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Patch.html#matplotlib.patches.Patch" title="matplotlib.patches.Patch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">red_patch</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Patch.html#matplotlib.patches.Patch" title="matplotlib.patches.Patch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mpatches</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Patch</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'red'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'The red data'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Patch.html#matplotlib.patches.Patch" title="matplotlib.patches.Patch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">red_patch</span></a><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_legend_guide_001.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_001.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_001_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>There are many supported legend handles. Instead of creating a patch of color
we could have created a line with a marker:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.lines</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="nn">mlines</span>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">blue_line</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mlines</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Line2D</span></a><span class="p">([],</span> <span class="p">[],</span> <span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'blue'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">marker</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'*'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">markersize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Blue stars'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">blue_line</span></a><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_legend_guide_002.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_002.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_002_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/></section>
<section id="legend-location">
<h2>Legend location<a class="headerlink" href="#legend-location" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>The location of the legend can be specified by the keyword argument
<em>loc</em>. Please see the documentation at <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> for more details.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bbox_to_anchor</span></code> keyword gives a great degree of control for manual
legend placement. For example, if you want your axes legend located at the
figure's top right-hand corner instead of the axes' corner, simply specify
the corner's location and the coordinate system of that location:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bbox_to_anchor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="n">bbox_transform</span><span class="o">=</span><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">transFigure</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>More examples of custom legend placement:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplot_mosaic.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplot_mosaic" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplot_mosaic" 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">subplot_mosaic</span></a><span class="p">([[</span><span class="s1">'top'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'top'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'bottom'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'BLANK'</span><span class="p">]],</span>
<span class="n">empty_sentinel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"BLANK"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'top'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"test1"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'top'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"test2"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Place a legend above this subplot, expanding itself to</span>
<span class="c1"># fully use the given bounding box.</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'top'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bbox_to_anchor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">1.02</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">1.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">.102</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">loc</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'lower left'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ncol</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mode</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"expand"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">borderaxespad</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'bottom'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"test1"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'bottom'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"test2"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Place a legend to the right of this smaller subplot.</span>
<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="builtins.dict" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax_dict</span></a><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'bottom'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bbox_to_anchor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">1.05</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="n">loc</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'upper left'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">borderaxespad</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.</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_legend_guide_003.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_003.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_003_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/></section>
<section id="multiple-legends-on-the-same-axes">
<h2>Multiple legends on the same Axes<a class="headerlink" href="#multiple-legends-on-the-same-axes" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Sometimes it is more clear to split legend entries across multiple
legends. Whilst the instinctive approach to doing this might be to call
the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> function multiple times, you will find that only one
legend ever exists on the Axes. This has been done so that it is possible
to call <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> repeatedly to update the legend to the latest
handles on the Axes. To keep old legend instances, we must add them
manually to the Axes:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line1</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"Line 1"</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.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line2</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"Line 2"</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="c1"># Create a legend for the first line.</span>
<a href="../../api/legend_api.html#matplotlib.legend.Legend" title="matplotlib.legend.Legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">first_legend</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line1</span></a><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">loc</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'upper right'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Add the legend manually to the Axes.</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_artist.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_artist" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_artist" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_artist</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="../../api/legend_api.html#matplotlib.legend.Legend" title="matplotlib.legend.Legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">first_legend</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Create another legend for the second line.</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handles</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line2</span></a><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">loc</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'lower right'</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_legend_guide_004.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_004.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_004_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/></section>
<section id="legend-handlers">
<h2>Legend Handlers<a class="headerlink" href="#legend-handlers" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>In order to create legend entries, handles are given as an argument to an
appropriate <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">HandlerBase</span></code></a> subclass.
The choice of handler subclass is determined by the following rules:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li><p>Update <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_api.html#matplotlib.legend.Legend.get_legend_handler_map" title="matplotlib.legend.Legend.get_legend_handler_map"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_legend_handler_map()</span></code></a>
with the value in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handler_map</span></code> keyword.</p></li>
<li><p>Check if the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handle</span></code> is in the newly created <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handler_map</span></code>.</p></li>
<li><p>Check if the type of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handle</span></code> is in the newly created <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handler_map</span></code>.</p></li>
<li><p>Check if any of the types in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handle</span></code>'s mro is in the newly
created <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handler_map</span></code>.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For completeness, this logic is mostly implemented in
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_api.html#matplotlib.legend.Legend.get_legend_handler" title="matplotlib.legend.Legend.get_legend_handler"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">get_legend_handler()</span></code></a>.</p>
<p>All of this flexibility means that we have the necessary hooks to implement
custom handlers for our own type of legend key.</p>
<p>The simplest example of using custom handlers is to instantiate one of the
existing <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_handler.HandlerBase</span></code></a> subclasses. For the
sake of simplicity, let's choose <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_handler.HandlerLine2D</span></code></a>
which accepts a <em>numpoints</em> argument (numpoints is also a keyword
on the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.legend.html#matplotlib.pyplot.legend" title="matplotlib.pyplot.legend"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend()</span></code></a> function for convenience). We can then pass the mapping
of instance to Handler as a keyword to legend.</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.legend_handler</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerLine2D</span></a>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line1</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">marker</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'o'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 1'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line2</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">marker</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'o'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">label</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'Line 2'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">handler_map</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">line1</span></a><span class="p">:</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerLine2D</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">numpoints</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_005.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_005.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_005_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>As you can see, "Line 1" now has 4 marker points, where "Line 2" has 2 (the
default). Try the above code, only change the map's key from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">line1</span></code> to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type(line1)</span></code>. Notice how now both <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Line2D</span></code></a> instances get 4 markers.</p>
<p>Along with handlers for complex plot types such as errorbars, stem plots
and histograms, the default <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">handler_map</span></code> has a special <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tuple</span></code> handler
(<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_handler.HandlerTuple</span></code></a>) which simply plots the handles on top of one
another for each item in the given tuple. The following example demonstrates
combining two legend keys on top of one another:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">numpy.random</span> <span class="kn">import</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">randn</span></a>
<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">z</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">randn</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">red_dot</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</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">z</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"ro"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">markersize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Put a white cross over some of the data.</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">white_cross</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</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">z</span></a><span class="p">[:</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="s2">"w+"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">markeredgewidth</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">markersize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">([</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">red_dot</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">(</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">red_dot</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">white_cross</span></a><span class="p">)],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"Attr A"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"Attr A+B"</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_006.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_006.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_006_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_handler.HandlerTuple</span></code></a> class can also be used to
assign several legend keys to the same entry:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.legend_handler</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerLine2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerLine2D</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerTuple</span></a>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">p1</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">2.5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="s1">'r-d'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">p2</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="s1">'k-o'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/legend_api.html#matplotlib.legend.Legend" title="matplotlib.legend.Legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">l</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">([(</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">p1</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.lines.Line2D.html#matplotlib.lines.Line2D" title="matplotlib.lines.Line2D" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-lines sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">p2</span></a><span class="p">)],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'Two keys'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">numpoints</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">handler_map</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="nb">tuple</span><span class="p">:</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerTuple" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerTuple</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ndivide</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">)})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_007.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_007.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_007_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><section id="implementing-a-custom-legend-handler">
<h3>Implementing a custom legend handler<a class="headerlink" href="#implementing-a-custom-legend-handler" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h3>
<p>A custom handler can be implemented to turn any handle into a legend key
(handles don't necessarily need to be matplotlib artists). The handler must
implement a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_artist</span></code> method which returns a single artist for the
legend to use. The required signature for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_artist</span></code> is documented at
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase.legend_artist" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerBase.legend_artist"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">legend_artist</span></code></a>.</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.patches</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="nn">mpatches</span>
<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">AnyObject</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">pass</span>
<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">AnyObjectHandler</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">legend_artist</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">legend</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">orig_handle</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">x0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y0</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xdescent</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ydescent</span>
<span class="n">width</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">height</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">width</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">height</span>
<span class="n">patch</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Rectangle.html#matplotlib.patches.Rectangle" title="matplotlib.patches.Rectangle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mpatches</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Rectangle</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">x0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y0</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">width</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">height</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">facecolor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'red'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">edgecolor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'black'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">hatch</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'xx'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">lw</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_transform</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="n">handlebox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_artist</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">patch</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">patch</span>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">AnyObject</span><span class="p">()],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'My first handler'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">handler_map</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="n">AnyObject</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">AnyObjectHandler</span><span class="p">()})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_008.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_008.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_008_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>Alternatively, had we wanted to globally accept <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">AnyObject</span></code> instances
without needing to manually set the <em>handler_map</em> keyword all the time, we
could have registered the new handler with:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.legend</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">Legend</span>
<span class="n">Legend</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">update_default_handler_map</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="n">AnyObject</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">AnyObjectHandler</span><span class="p">()})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Whilst the power here is clear, remember that there are already many handlers
implemented and what you want to achieve may already be easily possible with
existing classes. For example, to produce elliptical legend keys, rather than
rectangular ones:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.legend_handler</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerPatch</span></a>
<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">HandlerEllipse</span><span class="p">(</span><a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerPatch</span></a><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">create_artists</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">legend</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">orig_handle</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">xdescent</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ydescent</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">width</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">height</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">trans</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">center</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="n">width</span> <span class="o">-</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="n">xdescent</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="n">height</span> <span class="o">-</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="n">ydescent</span>
<span class="n">p</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Ellipse.html#matplotlib.patches.Ellipse" title="matplotlib.patches.Ellipse" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mpatches</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Ellipse</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xy</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">center</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">width</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">width</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">xdescent</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">height</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">height</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">ydescent</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">update_prop</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">orig_handle</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">legend</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">p</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_transform</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">trans</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">]</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Circle.html#matplotlib.patches.Circle" title="matplotlib.patches.Circle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">c</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Circle.html#matplotlib.patches.Circle" title="matplotlib.patches.Circle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mpatches</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Circle</span></a><span class="p">((</span><span class="mf">0.5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="mf">0.25</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">facecolor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"green"</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">edgecolor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"red"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">linewidth</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" 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">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_patch.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_patch" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.add_patch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_patch</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Circle.html#matplotlib.patches.Circle" title="matplotlib.patches.Circle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">c</span></a><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">legend</span></a><span class="p">([</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Circle.html#matplotlib.patches.Circle" title="matplotlib.patches.Circle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">c</span></a><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"An ellipse, not a rectangle"</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">handler_map</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.patches.Circle.html#matplotlib.patches.Circle" title="matplotlib.patches.Circle" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-patches sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">mpatches</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Circle</span></a><span class="p">:</span> <a href="../../api/legend_handler_api.html#matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" title="matplotlib.legend_handler.HandlerPatch" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-legend_handler sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class"><span class="n">HandlerEllipse</span></a><span class="p">()})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img src="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_009.png" srcset="../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_009.png, ../../_images/sphx_glr_legend_guide_009_2_0x.png 2.0x" alt="legend guide" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p class="sphx-glr-timing"><strong>Total running time of the script:</strong> ( 0 minutes 3.031 seconds)</p>
<div class="sphx-glr-footer sphx-glr-footer-example docutils container" id="sphx-glr-download-tutorials-intermediate-legend-guide-py">
<div class="sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-python docutils container">
<p><a class="reference download internal" download="" href="../../_downloads/ce889bca51a180072ba0c2bc8f68978d/legend_guide.py"><code class="xref download docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Download</span> <span class="pre">Python</span> <span class="pre">source</span> <span class="pre">code:</span> <span class="pre">legend_guide.py</span></code></a></p>
</div>
<div class="sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-jupyter docutils container">
<p><a class="reference download internal" download="" href="../../_downloads/adabc3da4485174b286dab6df239dd1d/legend_guide.ipynb"><code class="xref download docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Download</span> <span class="pre">Jupyter</span> <span class="pre">notebook:</span> <span class="pre">legend_guide.ipynb</span></code></a></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="sphx-glr-signature"><a class="reference external" href="https://sphinx-gallery.github.io">Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery</a></p>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</article>
</div>
<div class="bd-sidebar-secondary bd-toc">
<div class="toc-item">
<div class="tocsection onthispage">
<i class="fa-solid fa-list"></i> On this page
</div>
<nav id="bd-toc-nav" class="page-toc">
<ul class="visible nav section-nav flex-column">
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#controlling-the-legend-entries">
Controlling the legend entries
</a>
</li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#creating-artists-specifically-for-adding-to-the-legend-aka-proxy-artists">
Creating artists specifically for adding to the legend (aka. Proxy artists)
</a>
</li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#legend-location">
Legend location
</a>
</li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#multiple-legends-on-the-same-axes">
Multiple legends on the same Axes
</a>
</li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#legend-handlers">
Legend Handlers
</a>
<ul class="nav section-nav flex-column">
<li class="toc-h3 nav-item toc-entry">
<a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#implementing-a-custom-legend-handler">
Implementing a custom legend handler
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</nav>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer class="bd-footer-content">
<div class="bd-footer-content__inner">
</div>
</footer>
</main>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Scripts loaded after <body> so the DOM is not blocked -->
<script src="../../_static/scripts/bootstrap.js?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94"></script>
<script src="../../_static/scripts/pydata-sphinx-theme.js?digest=796348d33e8b1d947c94"></script>
<footer class="bd-footer"><div class="bd-footer__inner container">
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="copyright">
© Copyright 2002–2012 John Hunter, Darren Dale, Eric Firing, Michael Droettboom and the Matplotlib development team; 2012–2023 The Matplotlib development team.<br>
</p>
</div>
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="theme-version">
Built with the
<a href="https://pydata-sphinx-theme.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html">
PyData Sphinx Theme
</a>
0.12.0.
</p>
</div>
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="sphinx-version">
Created using <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 5.3.0.<br>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</footer>
</body>
</html>