Styling and Themes
Matplotlib includes several built-in styles that allow you to quickly change the appearance of your plots.
You can also fine-tune individual elements to match your preferred look, branding, or presentation theme.
Using Built-in Styles
Use plt.style.use("style_name")
to apply a theme globally.
Applying a Built-in Style
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use("ggplot") # Apply the ggplot theme
x = [1, 2, 3, 4]
y = [10, 20, 15, 25]
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.title("Styled Plot with ggplot")
plt.show()
Popular style names include:
"ggplot"
"seaborn"
"bmh"
"dark_background"
"fivethirtyeight"
Listing Available Styles
To see what’s available, run:
List Available Styles
print(plt.style.available)
Customizing Individual Elements
You can override specific elements, even when using a theme:
Customize Colors and Line Width
plt.plot(x, y, color="purple", linewidth=3)
This is useful when you want to maintain a consistent style while adjusting key visuals.
What’s Next?
You’ve now explored styling, subplots, labels, and saving — next up is the final quiz to review everything you’ve learned about Matplotlib.
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