How to Change the Figure Size with Subplots

How do I change the figure size with subplots?

Use this on a figure object:

fig.set_figheight(15)
fig.set_figwidth(15)

Alternatively, when using .subplots() to create a new figure, specify figsize=:

fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(15, 15))

Matplotlib different size subplots

• As of matplotlib 3.6.0, width_ratios and height_ratios can now be passed directly as keyword arguments to plt.subplots and subplot_mosaic, as per What's new in Matplotlib 3.6.0 (Sep 15, 2022).

f, (a0, a1) = plt.subplots(1, 2, width_ratios=[3, 1])

f, (a0, a1, a2) = plt.subplots(3, 1, height_ratios=[1, 1, 3])

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• Another way is to use the subplots function and pass the width ratio with gridspec_kw
  
  • matplotlib Tutorial: Customizing Figure Layouts Using GridSpec and Other Functions
  • matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpec has available gridspect_kw options

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 

# generate some data
x = np.arange(0, 10, 0.2)
y = np.sin(x)

# plot it
f, (a0, a1) = plt.subplots(1, 2, gridspec_kw={'width_ratios': [3, 1]})
a0.plot(x, y)
a1.plot(y, x)

f.tight_layout()
f.savefig('grid_figure.pdf')

• Because the question is canonical, here is an example with vertical subplots.

# plot it
f, (a0, a1, a2) = plt.subplots(3, 1, gridspec_kw={'height_ratios': [1, 1, 3]})

a0.plot(x, y)
a1.plot(x, y)
a2.plot(x, y)

f.tight_layout()

Set absolute size of matplotlib subplots

I ended up solving this by:

1. setting explicit absolute lengths for subplot width/height, the space between subplots and the space outside subplots,
2. adding them up to get an absolute figure size,
3. setting the subplot box_aspect to 1 to keep them square.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

num_subplots = [2, 3]

scale = 1 # scaling factor for the plot
subplot_abs_width = 2*scale # Both the width and height of each subplot
subplot_abs_spacing_width = 0.2*scale # The width of the spacing between subplots
subplot_abs_excess_width = 0.3*scale # The width of the excess space on the left and right of the subplots
subplot_abs_excess_height = 0.3*scale # The height of the excess space on the top and bottom of the subplots

for i, cols in enumerate(num_subplots):
    fig_width = (cols * subplot_abs_width) + ((cols-1) * subplot_abs_spacing_width) + subplot_abs_excess_width
    fig_height = subplot_abs_width+subplot_abs_excess_height

    fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, cols, sharey=True, figsize=(fig_width, fig_height), subplot_kw=dict(box_aspect=1))

    for j in range(cols):
        ax[j].set_title(f'plot {j}')
        ax[j].set_xlabel('My x label')
    ax[0].set_ylabel('My y label')

    plt.tight_layout()
    plt.savefig(f'{cols}-subplots.pdf', bbox_inches='tight', pad_inches=0)
    plt.show()

Matplotlib: change subplot size

You can simply add this line of code:

no_of_rows = 4 # rows of your subplots
no_of_cols = 2 # columns of your subplots
pyplot.subplots(no_of_rows, no_of_cols, figsize=(20,10))

Set size of subplot in matplotlib

Just switch figure size width and height from:

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(20, 8))

to:

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 20))

to use the whole page for your plots.

This will change your plot from:

to:

How to create three subplots where the height of the upper plot is lower?

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.gridspec import GridSpec
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi)
y1 = np.cos(x)
y2 = np.sin(x)

fig = plt.figure()
gs = GridSpec(2, 2, width_ratios=[2, 1], height_ratios=[1, 3])
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0])
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1])
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(gs[2])
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(gs[3])

ax3.plot(x, y1, label="cos")
ax3.plot(x, y2, label="sin")
handles, labels = ax3.get_legend_handles_labels()

# hide axis on the top left subplot
ax2.axis("off")
# adding two legends
legend1 = ax2.legend([handles[0]], [labels[0]], loc="upper left")
legend2 = ax2.legend([handles[1]], [labels[1]], loc="lower right")
ax2.add_artist(legend1)

plt.tight_layout()

Size of figure when using plt.subplots

You can remove your initial plt.figure(). When calling plt.subplots() a new figure is created, so you first call doesn't do anything.

The subplots command in the background will call plt.figure() for you, and any keywords will be passed along. So just add the figsize keyword to the subplots() command:

def plot(reader):
    channels=[]
    for i in reader:
        channels.append(i)

    fig, ax = plt.subplots(len(channels), sharex=True, figsize=(50,100))

    plot=0    
    for j in reader: 

        ax[plot].plot(reader["%s" % j])
        plot=plot+1

    plt.tight_layout()
    plt.show()

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