matplot_examples

This package contains a matplotlibrc file for saving matplotlib configuration and examples of how to create attractive plots.

Notes

The width of a figure should always be set to the real physical column width. e.g. 3+3/8 inches for a PRL column. This will mean that fonts appear on the page in the correct size.
Using a uniform style is very important for an attractive manuscript. Try to avoid ad-hoc changes to the settings. If you feel that there is a desirable change, consider applying it to the whole manuscript, preferably by setting some edits to the matplotlibrc file in the working folder or right at the start of the script/notebook. e.g. mpl.rc('font', size=10).
Gridspec and subplots_adjust are useful to set the precise location of panels.
Including 2-4 minor ticks per major tick is usually good.
Putting the colorbar on separate axes facilities better control over its location.
Saving in pdf creates vector graphics and fast performance within pdflatex.

Run a mybinder sessesion here.

chmod +x copy_to_matplotlibrc_folder ./copy_to_matplotlibrc_folder

To copy file to the place in which matplotlib checks.

run locally via installing docker

pip install jupyter-repo2docker and then pointing to an appropriate docker image jupyter-repo2docker --editable .