figurex 0.2.15

Make figures with context managers in python: quicker, simpler, more readable.

Figurex

Make figures with context managers in python: quicker, simpler, more readable.

with Figure() as ax:
    ax.plot([1,2],[3,4])

Idea

Tired of lengthy matplotlib code just for simple plotting?

# How plotting used to be:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, axes = plt.subplots(1,2, figsize=(4,5))
plt.set_title("My plot")
ax = axes[0]
ax.plot([1,2],[3,4])
ax = axes[1]
ax.plot([2,3],[4,5])
fig.savefig("file.png", bbox_inches='tight')
plt.show()

Beautify your daily work with shorter and more readable code:

# How plotting becomes with figurex:
from figurex import Figure, Panel

with Figure("My plot", layout=(1,2), size=(4,5), save="file.png"):
    with Panel() as ax:
        ax.plot([1,2],[3,4])
    with Panel() as ax:
        ax.plot([2,3],[4,5])

The Figure() environment generates the matplotlib-based figure and axes for you, and automatically shows, saves, and closes the figure when leaving the context. It is just a wrapper around standard matplotlib code, you can use ax to modify the plot as you would normally do. Extend it your way without limits!

Examples

Make a simple plot:

with Figure("A simple plot") as ax:
    ax.plot([1,2],[3,4])

A plot with two panels:

with Figure(layout=(1,2), size=(6,3)):
    with Panel("a) Magic") as ax:
        ax.plot([1,2],[3,4])
    with Panel("b) Reality", grid="") as ax:
        ax.plot([5,5],[6,4])

Save a plot into memory for later use (e.g. in FPDF):

with Figure("Tea party", show=False):
    with Panel() as ax:
        ax.plot([5,5],[6,4])
my_figure = Figure.as_object()
# <_io.BytesIO at 0x...>

Plotting maps:

from figurex.basemap import Basemap

with Figure(size=(3,3)):
    with Basemap("Germany", extent=(5,15,46,55), tiles="relief") as Map:
        x,y = Map(12.385, 51.331)
        Map.scatter(x, y,  marker="x", color="red", s=200)

• Check out the Examples Notebook!

Documentation

A documentation and API reference can be found on ReadTheDocs:

• Figure (context manager)
• Panel (context manager)
• Basemap (context manager)
• Cartopy (context manager)

Install

pip install figurex

If you want to use geospatial mapping features with Basemap or Cartopy, install the corresponding optional features:

pip install figurex[basemap]
pip install figurex[cartopy]

If you work with uv, replace pip install by uv add.

Requirements

• python >3.10
• numpy >2.0
• matplotlib >3.0
• basemap >=2.0 (optional)
• cartopy >=0.25 (optional)
• scipy (optional, required by cartopy)

Related

• A discussion on GitHub/matplotlib actually requested this feature long ago.
• The project GitHub/contextplt has implemented a similar concept.