kristjaneerik / brokenaxes

Create matplotlib plots with broken axes

brokenaxes

brokenaxes makes matplotlib plots with breaks in the axes for showing data across a discontinuous range.

Installation

I recommend the Anaconda python distribution

pip install brokenaxes

Usage

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from brokenaxes import brokenaxes
import numpy as np

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5,2))
bax = brokenaxes(xlims=((0, .1), (.4, .7)), ylims=((-1, .7), (.79, 1)), hspace=.05)
x = np.linspace(0, 1, 100)
bax.plot(x, np.sin(10 * x), label='sin')
bax.plot(x, np.cos(10 * x), label='cos')
bax.legend(loc=3)
bax.set_xlabel('time')
bax.set_ylabel('value')

Create subplots:

from brokenaxes import brokenaxes
from matplotlib.gridspec import GridSpec
import numpy as np

sps1, sps2 = GridSpec(2,1)

bax = brokenaxes(xlims=((.1, .3),(.7, .8)), subplot_spec=sps1)
x = np.linspace(0, 1, 100)
bax.plot(x, np.sin(x*30), ls=':', color='m')

x = np.random.poisson(3, 1000)
bax = brokenaxes(xlims=((0, 2.5), (3, 6)), subplot_spec=sps2)
bax.hist(x, histtype='bar')

Features:

• Break x and y axes.
• Supports multiple breaks on a single axis.
• Automatically scales axes according to relative ranges.
• Plot multiple lines.
• Legend with positioning relative to entire broken axes object
• x and y label centered to entire plot
• Make brokenaxes object a subplot itself with matplotlib.GridSpec.subplot_spec.
• xlims and ylims may be datetime.datetime objects

Gallery:

If you make a plot that you are proud of with this tool, send me a png and code and I'll add it to the gallery!

Life advice

Please use this tool wisely. Any data visualization techique can be used to elucidate trends in the data, and can be used to manipulate and mislead. The latter is particularly true for broken axes plots, so please try to use them responsibly. Other than that, this software is free to use for any purpose.