Artifacts when saving as PDF

Getting some strange artifacts when I save a figure as a PDF in
matplotlib. Here are some screen shots. PDF and PNG . Any idea why that is
happening?

Here is (most of) the source code that makes the plot. I stripped

out the data generation, because it is long and involved, and
doesn’t really matter. Basically what the script is supposed to do
is make a scatter plot where the density is below some threshold,
and a 2d histogram when it is above that threshold. The code seems
to work fine, but when I save the figure (using savefig in Ipython)
it shows up funny.

Thanks.

    import pylab as pyl

    bins = [50,50]
    thresh = 3

    xdat = #generate or load some data
    ydat = #generate or load some data

    hh, locx, locy = pyl.histogram2d(xdat, ydat,

range=[[-1,4],[-26,-10]], bins=bins)
posx = pyl.digitize(xdat, locx)
posy = pyl.digitize(ydat, locy)

    # finds the bins which contain points. posx = 0 for points

outside “range”
ind = (posx > 0) & (posx <= bins[0]) & (posy >
0) & (posy <= bins[1])
# values of histogram with points in the bins.
hhsub = hh[posx[ind] - 1, posy[ind] - 1]

    xdat1 = xdat[ind][hhsub < thresh] # low density points
    ydat1 = ydat[ind][hhsub < thresh]
    hh[hh < thresh] = pyl.nan # fill the areas with low density

by NaNs

    pyl.scatter(xdat1, ydat1, s=20, c='0.8')
    pyl.imshow(pyl.log10(hh.T), cmap='gray_r',
        extent=pyl.array([[-1,4],[-26,-10]]).flatten(),

interpolation=‘none’)

    pyl.show()
···

-- Steven Boada
Doctoral Student
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University

boada@…3847…

This is probaly due to issues with not all of the vector backends supporting alpha gracefully.

This can be reproduced more simply by

x, y = np.ogrid[-5:5:.1, -5:5:.1]
dd = np.exp(-(x2 + y2))
dd[dd < .1] = np.nan

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.imshow(dd, interpolation=‘none’, cmap=‘gray_r’)
plt.savefig(‘test.pdf’)

@steven In the future it is best to report bugs with minimal copy-paste able examples.

···

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 5:41 PM Steven Boada <boada@…3847…> wrote:

Getting some strange artifacts when I save a figure as a PDF in

matplotlib. Here are some screen shots. PDF and PNG . Any idea why that is
happening?

Here is (most of) the source code that makes the plot. I stripped

out the data generation, because it is long and involved, and
doesn’t really matter. Basically what the script is supposed to do
is make a scatter plot where the density is below some threshold,
and a 2d histogram when it is above that threshold. The code seems
to work fine, but when I save the figure (using savefig in Ipython)
it shows up funny.

Thanks.



    import pylab as pyl



    bins = [50,50]

    thresh = 3



    xdat = #generate or load some data

    ydat = #generate or load some data



    hh, locx, locy = pyl.histogram2d(xdat, ydat,

range=[[-1,4],[-26,-10]], bins=bins)

    posx = pyl.digitize(xdat, locx)

    posy = pyl.digitize(ydat, locy)



    # finds the bins which contain points. posx = 0 for points

outside “range”

    ind = (posx > 0) & (posx <= bins[0]) & (posy >
  1. & (posy <= bins[1])

     # values of histogram with points in the bins.
    
     hhsub = hh[posx[ind] - 1, posy[ind] - 1]
    
    
    
     xdat1 = xdat[ind][hhsub < thresh] # low density points
    
     ydat1 = ydat[ind][hhsub < thresh]
    
     hh[hh < thresh] = pyl.nan # fill the areas with low density
    

by NaNs

    pyl.scatter(xdat1, ydat1, s=20, c='0.8')

    pyl.imshow(pyl.log10(hh.T), cmap='gray_r',

        extent=pyl.array([[-1,4],[-26,-10]]).flatten(),

interpolation=‘none’)

    pyl.show()

-- Steven Boada
Doctoral Student
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
boada@...3847...

BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT

Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard

Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises

http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_

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Thomas,

Thanks for the smaller example. I would have come up with one, but I wasn't sure what was causing it to begin with.

Is there anything to be done to prevent this? Just use another backend?

Steven

···

On 4/6/15 8:47 PM, Thomas Caswell wrote:

This is probaly due to issues with not all of the vector backends supporting alpha gracefully.

This can be reproduced more simply by

x, y = np.ogrid[-5:5:.1, -5:5:.1]
dd = np.exp(-(x**2 + y**2))
dd[dd < .1] = np.nan

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.imshow(dd, interpolation='none', cmap='gray_r')
plt.savefig('test.pdf')

@steven In the future it is best to report bugs with minimal copy-paste able examples.

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 5:41 PM Steven Boada <boada@...3847... > <mailto:boada@…3847…>> wrote:

    Getting some strange artifacts when I save a figure as a PDF in
    matplotlib. Here are some screen shots. PDF
    <http://imgur.com/oQDXkWn&gt; and PNG <http://imgur.com/bCw3Fn4&gt;\. Any
    idea why that is happening?

    Here is (most of) the source code that makes the plot. I stripped
    out the data generation, because it is long and involved, and
    doesn't really matter. Basically what the script is supposed to do
    is make a scatter plot where the density is below some threshold,
    and a 2d histogram when it is above that threshold. The code seems
    to work fine, but when I save the figure (using savefig in
    Ipython) it shows up funny.

    Thanks.

        import pylab as pyl

        bins = [50,50]
        thresh = 3

        xdat = #generate or load some data
        ydat = #generate or load some data

        hh, locx, locy = pyl.histogram2d(xdat, ydat,
    range=[[-1,4],[-26,-10]], bins=bins)
        posx = pyl.digitize(xdat, locx)
        posy = pyl.digitize(ydat, locy)

        # finds the bins which contain points. posx = 0 for points
    outside "range"
        ind = (posx > 0) & (posx <= bins[0]) & (posy > 0) & (posy <=
    bins[1])
        # values of histogram with points in the bins.
        hhsub = hh[posx[ind] - 1, posy[ind] - 1]

        xdat1 = xdat[ind][hhsub < thresh] # low density points
        ydat1 = ydat[ind][hhsub < thresh]
        hh[hh < thresh] = pyl.nan # fill the areas with low density by
    NaNs

        pyl.scatter(xdat1, ydat1, s=20, c='0.8')
        pyl.imshow(pyl.log10(hh.T), cmap='gray_r',
            extent=pyl.array([[-1,4],[-26,-10]]).flatten(),
    interpolation='none')

        pyl.show()

    --

    Steven Boada

    Doctoral Student
    Dept of Physics and Astronomy
    Texas A&M University
    boada@...3847... <mailto:boada@…3847…>

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT
    Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard
    Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live
    exercises
    http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual-
    event?utm_
    source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF_______________________________________________
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    Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
    <mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
    matplotlib-users List Signup and Options

--

Steven Boada

Doctoral Student
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
boada@...3847...

This probably should be made into an issue on github as this is clearly a bug.

On further consideration, the fact that in my example the bad pixels show up only on the edge and are not symmetric makes me think that my original suggestion is wrong. Does interpoltation='nearest' work any better?

I also am not sure that the rasterzation is happening so this may be an issue on the renderer end.

This needs more investigation that I have time for today.

Tom

···

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 11:02 AM Steven Boada <boada@…3847…> wrote:

Thomas,

Thanks for the smaller example. I would have come up with one, but I

wasn’t sure what was causing it to begin with.

Is there anything to be done to prevent this? Just use another backend?

Steven

On 4/6/15 8:47 PM, Thomas Caswell wrote:

This is probaly due to issues with not all of the vector backends

supporting alpha gracefully.

This can be reproduced more simply by

x, y = np.ogrid[-5:5:.1, -5:5:.1]

dd = np.exp(-(x2 + y2))

dd[dd < .1] = np.nan

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.imshow(dd, interpolation=‘none’, cmap=‘gray_r’)

plt.savefig(‘test.pdf’)

@steven In the future it is best to report bugs with minimal

copy-paste able examples.

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 5:41 PM Steven Boada <boada@…3847… > > > mailto:boada@...3847...> wrote:

Getting some strange artifacts when I save a figure as a PDF in
matplotlib. Here are some screen shots. PDF
<[http://imgur.com/oQDXkWn](http://imgur.com/oQDXkWn)> and PNG <[http://imgur.com/bCw3Fn4](http://imgur.com/bCw3Fn4)>. Any
idea why that is happening?
Here is (most of) the source code that makes the plot. I stripped
out the data generation, because it is long and involved, and
doesn't really matter. Basically what the script is supposed to do
is make a scatter plot where the density is below some threshold,
and a 2d histogram when it is above that threshold. The code seems
to work fine, but when I save the figure (using savefig in
Ipython) it shows up funny.
Thanks.
    import pylab as pyl
    bins = [50,50]
    thresh = 3
    xdat = #generate or load some data
    ydat = #generate or load some data
    hh, locx, locy = pyl.histogram2d(xdat, ydat,
range=[[-1,4],[-26,-10]], bins=bins)
    posx = pyl.digitize(xdat, locx)
    posy = pyl.digitize(ydat, locy)
    # finds the bins which contain points. posx = 0 for points
outside "range"
    ind = (posx > 0) & (posx <= bins[0]) & (posy > 0) & (posy <=
bins[1])
    # values of histogram with points in the bins.
    hhsub = hh[posx[ind] - 1, posy[ind] - 1]
    xdat1 = xdat[ind][hhsub < thresh] # low density points
    ydat1 = ydat[ind][hhsub < thresh]
    hh[hh < thresh] = pyl.nan # fill the areas with low density by
NaNs
    pyl.scatter(xdat1, ydat1, s=20, c='0.8')
    pyl.imshow(pyl.log10(hh.T), cmap='gray_r',
        extent=pyl.array([[-1,4],[-26,-10]]).flatten(),
interpolation='none')
    pyl.show()
--
Steven Boada
Doctoral Student
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
boada@...3847...  <mailto:boada@...3847...>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT
Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard
Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live
exercises
[http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual-](http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual-)
event?utm_
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<mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
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Steven Boada

Doctoral Student

Dept of Physics and Astronomy

Texas A&M University

boada@…3847…


BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT

Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard

Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises

http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_

source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF


Matplotlib-users mailing list

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https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your help.

interpolation='nearest' doesn't produce any problems. I'm currently using TkAgg, and I checked with a buddy of mine, using MacOSX backend. Neither of us see any problems using interpolation='nearest'. He is using an older version of MPL which doesn't let him use interpolation='none'.

I will ask around to see if anyone can run a few more test cases.

Steven

···

On 4/7/15 10:39 AM, Thomas Caswell wrote:

This probably should be made into an issue on github as this is clearly a bug.

On further consideration, the fact that in my example the bad pixels show up only on the edge and are not symmetric makes me think that my original suggestion is wrong. Does `interpoltation='nearest'` work any better?

I also am not sure that the rasterzation is happening so this may be an issue on the renderer end.

This needs more investigation that I have time for today.

Tom

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 11:02 AM Steven Boada <boada@...3847... > <mailto:boada@…3847…>> wrote:

    Thomas,

    Thanks for the smaller example. I would have come up with one, but I
    wasn't sure what was causing it to begin with.

    Is there anything to be done to prevent this? Just use another
    backend?

    Steven

    On 4/6/15 8:47 PM, Thomas Caswell wrote:
    > This is probaly due to issues with not all of the vector backends
    > supporting alpha gracefully.
    >
    > This can be reproduced more simply by
    >
    > x, y = np.ogrid[-5:5:.1, -5:5:.1]
    > dd = np.exp(-(x**2 + y**2))
    > dd[dd < .1] = np.nan
    >
    > fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    > ax.imshow(dd, interpolation='none', cmap='gray_r')
    > plt.savefig('test.pdf')
    >
    > @steven In the future it is best to report bugs with minimal
    > copy-paste able examples.
    >
    > On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 5:41 PM Steven Boada > <boada@...3847... <mailto:boada@…3847…> > > <mailto:boada@…3847…>> > wrote:
    >
    > Getting some strange artifacts when I save a figure as a PDF in
    > matplotlib. Here are some screen shots. PDF
    > <http://imgur.com/oQDXkWn&gt; and PNG
    <http://imgur.com/bCw3Fn4&gt;\. Any
    > idea why that is happening?
    >
    > Here is (most of) the source code that makes the plot. I
    stripped
    > out the data generation, because it is long and involved, and
    > doesn't really matter. Basically what the script is supposed
    to do
    > is make a scatter plot where the density is below some
    threshold,
    > and a 2d histogram when it is above that threshold. The code
    seems
    > to work fine, but when I save the figure (using savefig in
    > Ipython) it shows up funny.
    >
    > Thanks.
    >
    > import pylab as pyl
    >
    > bins = [50,50]
    > thresh = 3
    >
    > xdat = #generate or load some data
    > ydat = #generate or load some data
    >
    > hh, locx, locy = pyl.histogram2d(xdat, ydat,
    > range=[[-1,4],[-26,-10]], bins=bins)
    > posx = pyl.digitize(xdat, locx)
    > posy = pyl.digitize(ydat, locy)
    >
    > # finds the bins which contain points. posx = 0 for points
    > outside "range"
    > ind = (posx > 0) & (posx <= bins[0]) & (posy > 0) & (posy <=
    > bins[1])
    > # values of histogram with points in the bins.
    > hhsub = hh[posx[ind] - 1, posy[ind] - 1]
    >
    > xdat1 = xdat[ind][hhsub < thresh] # low density points
    > ydat1 = ydat[ind][hhsub < thresh]
    > hh[hh < thresh] = pyl.nan # fill the areas with low
    density by
    > NaNs
    >
    > pyl.scatter(xdat1, ydat1, s=20, c='0.8')
    > pyl.imshow(pyl.log10(hh.T), cmap='gray_r',
    > extent=pyl.array([[-1,4],[-26,-10]]).flatten(),
    > interpolation='none')
    >
    > pyl.show()
    >
    > --
    >
    > Steven Boada
    >
    > Doctoral Student
    > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
    > Texas A&M University
    > boada@...3847... <mailto:boada@…3847…>
    <mailto:boada@…3847…>
    >
    > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    > BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT
    > Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard
    > Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM
    through live
    > exercises
    > http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual-
    > event?utm_
    > source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF_______________________________________________
    > Matplotlib-users mailing list
    > Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
    <mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
    > <mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
    <mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net>>
    > matplotlib-users List Signup and Options
    >

    --

    Steven Boada

    Doctoral Student
    Dept of Physics and Astronomy
    Texas A&M University
    boada@...3847... <mailto:boada@…3847…>

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT
    Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard
    Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live
    exercises
    http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual-
    event?utm_
    source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF
    _______________________________________________
    Matplotlib-users mailing list
    Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
    <mailto:Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
    matplotlib-users List Signup and Options

--

Steven Boada

Doctoral Student
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Texas A&M University
boada@...3847...