my-mpl-style

Two small helpers that give matplotlib figures a publication-ready look:

• plot_rc() applies a consistent rcParams preset — serif fonts, Computer Modern math, a MATLAB-like colour cycle, optional grid and tick direction, plus 300 dpi / tight-bbox save defaults.
• ax_setting3D() turns a 3D axes into a clean orthographic box with explicit tick positions and a grey back edge.

Installation

pip install my-mpl-style

Requires Python 3.10+ and matplotlib 3.5+.

Quick start

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from my_mpl_style import plot_rc

plot_rc(grid=True)                 # serif + CM math, 300 dpi, tight bbox

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([0, 1, 2], [0, 1, 4], label="data")
ax.set(xlabel="$x$", ylabel="$y$")
ax.legend(frameon=False)

fig.savefig("figure.png")          # uses savefig.dpi=300, bbox="tight"

Every default can be overridden per call:

plot_rc(
    save_dpi=600,
    save_bbox="standard",
    save_pad_inches=0.1,
    font_family="sans-serif",
    font_serif=["DejaVu Sans"],
)

3D axes

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from my_mpl_style import ax_setting3D

a = np.linspace(-1, 1, 200)
x, y = np.meshgrid(a, a)
z = np.sin(np.pi * x) * np.exp(y)

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection="3d")
ax.plot_surface(x, y, z, linewidth=0, antialiased=True)
ax_setting3D(
    ax,
    (-1, 1), (-1, 1), (z.min(), z.max()),
    xticks=[-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1],
    yticks=[-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1],
    zticks=[-2, 0, 2],
    box_aspect=(1, 1, 1),
)
plt.show()

Ticks are passed to ax_setting3D() rather than set separately with ax.set(xticks=...), so the grey back edge is computed after the final limits and ticks are known.

API

plot_rc(...)

plot_rc(
    grid=False,
    tick_direction="out",
    tick_right=False,
    tick_top=False,
    save_dpi=300,
    save_bbox="tight",
    save_pad_inches=0.05,
    font_family="serif",
    font_serif=("Arial", "Helvetica", "DejaVu Sans"),
)

Updates the global matplotlib.rcParams, so it affects every figure created afterwards.

rcParams written by the preset:

ax_setting3D(...)

ax_setting3D(
    ax,
    xlim, ylim, zlim,
    xticks, yticks, zticks,
    aspect="equal",
    box_aspect=None,
    xticks_pad=-5,
    yticks_pad=-5,
    zticks_pad=0,
)

Makes the panes transparent, thins the grid and tick marks, aligns the tick labels next to their axes, sets the tick positions and limits, and draws the grey back edge of the box.

Development

python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate          # Windows
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest
python examples/demo.py          # regenerate docs/images/demo.png
python -m build
twine check dist/*

examples/demo.py prepends src/ to sys.path, so it always renders with the checkout's code even when an older release is installed in site-packages.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT © 2026 chengtau