djrhails-graphs 0.3.1

Economist-style chart theme for matplotlib/seaborn

graphs

Economist-style chart theme for matplotlib and seaborn — global theme, title-stack finaliser, direct line labels, CI bands, horizontal bars, and dumbbell charts. Uses IBM Plex Sans typography and a curated 8-colour palette.

Version: 0.3.1

Install

pip install djrhails-graphs

PyPI distribution is djrhails-graphs because the bare name graphs is taken. The import package is graphs.

Quick start

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from graphs import ci_fill, finalize, label_lines, set_theme

set_theme()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
fig.subplots_adjust(top=0.68, bottom=0.14, left=0.06, right=0.88)

ax.plot(x, y, label="Series A")
label_lines(ax)
finalize(
    ax,
    title="Bold chart title",
    descriptor="Country, metric, unit",
    source="Source: Organisation",
)

See examples/ for runnable scripts:

• line_chart.py — multi-series line with CI bands + direct labels
• faceted_chart.py — three-panel faceted layout with panel labels
• bar_chart.py — horizontal bar with max-value highlight
• dumbbell_chart.py — before/after comparison with legend

Public API

Function	Purpose
set_theme()	Apply global rcParams (figure, axes, ticks, fonts, palette)
finalize(ax, title, descriptor, source, *, y_axis_right, title_x, y_start, autoscale_y)	Title stack, red rule, source line, y-axis tidy-up
label_lines(ax, ...)	Direct end-of-line labels with collision avoidance
smart_legend(ax, ...)	Pick the emptiest corner of the axes
ci_fill(ax, x, y_lo, y_hi, *, color)	Confidence-interval band
bar_h(ax, categories, values, *, highlight_max)	Horizontal bar chart
dumbbell(ax, categories, start, end, ...)	Dot-and-line before/after chart
panel_label(ax, label)	Bold panel sub-heading for facets

Palette

from graphs import colors, C_BG, C_RED, C_SPINE, C_GRID, C_LABEL, C_TEXT, C_CI

Sequence colors (red primary, blue, teal, green, yellow, mauve, slate, coral).

Typography

IBM Plex Sans is loaded automatically. If already registered in matplotlib's font manager, no download occurs. Otherwise TTFs are fetched from github.com/IBM/plex on first use and cached inside the installed package.

Fallback chain: IBM Plex Sans → Verdana → Arial → DejaVu Sans.

Development

Hot reload:

uv run graphs-watch

Watches graphs/ and examples/ for .py changes and re-renders the affected examples + comparisons.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.