How Can I Place a Legend Outside the Plot Area in Matplotlib?

Placing Legends Outside the Plot Area

When generating multiple plots on a single figure, the placement of the legend can be crucial to ensure clarity and efficiency. This article explores various methods to position the legend outside the plot area, allowing for optimal use of space and readability of labels.

External Legend Placement

To place the legend outside the designated plot area, the bbox_to_anchor keyword argument can be employed. This parameter accepts a tuple of two values, specifying the x and y coordinates of the legend's placement relative to the axis. By setting the x-coordinate to a value greater than 1 (e.g., bbox_to_anchor=(1.1, 1.05)), the legend will be shifted to the right of the plot.

Adjusting Font Size

If the legend contains a large number of labels, it may be necessary to reduce the font size to minimize its size on the plot. This can be achieved by setting the fontsize parameter of the Legend object:

plt.legend(loc='upper center', bbox_to_anchor=(0.5, 1.05), fontsize='8')

Alternative Approaches

In addition to the bbox_to_anchor approach, there are alternative methods to place the legend outside the plot area:

• Shrink Current Plot: Reduce the width or height of the plot, creating space for the legend to be placed outside the axis boundaries.
• Use figlegend(): This function allows the placement of a legend outside the individual plot axes, ensuring that it is not constrained by the axis boundaries.

By exploring these techniques, you can effectively position your legend outside the plot area, maximizing the visibility of both the data and its labels.

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