Using a table as a legend, ugly text output?

Community matplotlib-users
1

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to use a table as a legend of
sorts, as I have a very busy graph I'm trying to describe.

Basically:
- I'm visualizing data from a series of similar but not-quite-identical
simulations
- I'd like to have the simulation parameters displayed in a table format,
with an example line from the graph next to each row

So, I might have rows that look like:
"Line", "Alpha", "Beta"...
"-----" , "0.125", "2.0"....
"- - -", "0.120", "2.0"....

The problem is I can't figure out how to include a line "sample" like what's
included with the legend in a table, and I can't figure out how to make
legend entries that don't have any lines. I suspect that I could make a
dummy white plot, and use that for my data entries in a legend and make a
legend-table hybrid that way. However, I think using a table would be
cleaner and look nicer.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to get this working?

While I'm posting, another quick question -- my text output looks really
shoddy, even at high DPIs. It looks like somebody took a screenshot of a
tiny font and scaled it up with a linear filter. I have freetype installed,
and the matplotlib build script outputs the following, if it's helpful:

BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
            matplotlib: 0.99.1.1
                python: 2.5.4 (r254:67916, Apr 4 2009, 17:56:17) [GCC
                        4.3.3]
              platform: linux2

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
                 numpy: 1.2.1
             freetype2: 9.20.3

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
                libpng: 1.2.27
               Tkinter: Tkinter: 67737, Tk: 8.5, Tcl: 8.5
              wxPython: 2.8.9.1
                        * WxAgg extension not required for wxPython >= 2.8
                  Gtk+: gtk+: 2.16.1, glib: 2.20.1, pygtk: 2.14.1,
                        pygobject: 2.16.1
       Mac OS X native: no
                    Qt: no
                   Qt4: no
                 Cairo: 1.4.12

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
              datetime: present, version unknown
              dateutil: 1.4.1
                  pytz: 2008h

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
                dvipng: 1.11
           ghostscript: 8.64
                 latex: 3.141592
               pdftops: 0.10.5

Thank you in advance for any advice!

-Ashley

···

–
View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Using-a-table-as-a-legend%2C-ugly-text-output--tp27206248p27206248.html
Sent from the matplotlib - users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

2

ashleyd wrote:

While I'm posting, another quick question -- my text output looks really
shoddy, even at high DPIs. It looks like somebody took a screenshot of a
tiny font and scaled it up with a linear filter. I have freetype installed,
and the matplotlib build script outputs the following, if it's helpful:

BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
            matplotlib: 0.99.1.1
                python: 2.5.4 (r254:67916, Apr 4 2009, 17:56:17) [GCC
                        4.3.3]
              platform: linux2

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
                 numpy: 1.2.1
             freetype2: 9.20.3

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
                libpng: 1.2.27
               Tkinter: Tkinter: 67737, Tk: 8.5, Tcl: 8.5
              wxPython: 2.8.9.1
                        * WxAgg extension not required for wxPython >= 2.8
                  Gtk+: gtk+: 2.16.1, glib: 2.20.1, pygtk: 2.14.1,
                        pygobject: 2.16.1
       Mac OS X native: no
                    Qt: no
                   Qt4: no
                 Cairo: 1.4.12

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
              datetime: present, version unknown
              dateutil: 1.4.1
                  pytz: 2008h

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
                dvipng: 1.11
           ghostscript: 8.64
                 latex: 3.141592
               pdftops: 0.10.5
  

I'll let someone with more table and/or legend experience answer your first question. As for this part, this all looks fine. What backend are you using? Can you send a screenshot?

Mike

···

--
Michael Droettboom
Science Software Branch
Operations and Engineering Division
Space Telescope Science Institute
Operated by AURA for NASA

3

While I don't known much about how table class in matplotlib works
internally, I think it would not be easy (because the legend is quite
a unique object whose position is determined at drawing time).

The current legend implementation is based on the offsetbox module.
While it does not have a table-like class, you can emulate something
similar. The link below show my attempt to do this, but it turned out
that the code is rather complicated. Take a look and see if you can
adopt it for your needs. I may try to implement some table-like class
with offsetbox in the future, to make things more easy.

Regards,

-JJ

···

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 4:46 PM, ashleyd <ashleydangerous@...287...> wrote:

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to use a table as a legend of
sorts, as I have a very busy graph I'm trying to describe.

Basically:
- I'm visualizing data from a series of similar but not-quite-identical
simulations
- I'd like to have the simulation parameters displayed in a table format,
with an example line from the graph next to each row

So, I might have rows that look like:
"Line", "Alpha", "Beta"...
"-----" , "0.125", "2.0"....
"- - -", "0.120", "2.0"....

The problem is I can't figure out how to include a line "sample" like what's
included with the legend in a table, and I can't figure out how to make
legend entries that don't have any lines. I suspect that I could make a
dummy white plot, and use that for my data entries in a legend and make a
legend-table hybrid that way. However, I think using a table would be
cleaner and look nicer.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to get this working?

While I'm posting, another quick question -- my text output looks really
shoddy, even at high DPIs. It looks like somebody took a screenshot of a
tiny font and scaled it up with a linear filter. I have freetype installed,
and the matplotlib build script outputs the following, if it's helpful:

BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
matplotlib: 0.99.1.1
python: 2.5.4 (r254:67916, Apr 4 2009, 17:56:17) [GCC
4.3.3]
platform: linux2

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
numpy: 1.2.1
freetype2: 9.20.3

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
libpng: 1.2.27
Tkinter: Tkinter: 67737, Tk: 8.5, Tcl: 8.5
wxPython: 2.8.9.1
* WxAgg extension not required for wxPython >= 2.8
Gtk+: gtk+: 2.16.1, glib: 2.20.1, pygtk: 2.14.1,
pygobject: 2.16.1
Mac OS X native: no
Qt: no
Qt4: no
Cairo: 1.4.12

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
datetime: present, version unknown
dateutil: 1.4.1
pytz: 2008h

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
dvipng: 1.11
ghostscript: 8.64
latex: 3.141592
pdftops: 0.10.5

Thank you in advance for any advice!

-Ashley
--
View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Using-a-table-as-a-legend%2C-ugly-text-output--tp27206248p27206248.html
Sent from the matplotlib - users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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