How Do I Save Matplotlib Plots as Image Files and Remove Excess Whitespace?

Saving Plots to Image Files: A Comprehensive Guide

While the matplotlib.pyplot library offers the convenient plt.show() function to display plots in a graphical user interface, it is often necessary to save these plots as image files for documentation or sharing purposes. This article provides a comprehensive guide to saving plots to image files instead of displaying them.

Saving Plots to Image Files

To save a plot as an image file, utilize the plt.savefig() function. The file format can be specified by appending the desired extension to the filename:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.savefig('foo.png')  # Saves the plot as a PNG file
plt.savefig('foo.pdf')  # Saves the plot as a PDF file

These formats provide rasterized and vectorized outputs, respectively.

Removing Whitespace

Plots saved to image files can sometimes have undesirable whitespace around the edges. To eliminate this whitespace, add the bbox_inches='tight' parameter to plt.savefig():

plt.savefig('foo.png', bbox_inches='tight')

Displaying the Plot

It is important to note that if the plot is intended to be shown in a GUI after saving it to an image file, the plt.show() command should be placed after plt.savefig(). Failure to do so will result in a blank image file.

In summary, the plt.savefig() function with the appropriate file extension allows for seamless saving of plots as image files. The bbox_inches='tight' parameter helps remove whitespace, and plt.show() should follow plt.savefig() if the plot is to be displayed in a GUI.

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