Axes, legend and frame
This chapter describes the panel sections "Axes & labels", "Frame & background" and "Legend" shared by the 1-D plot, 1-D plot (aggregation), 2-D plot and 2-D plot (aggregation) modes. For the "Axes" of cross-sections see Vertical cross-section; for the gridlines, tick marks and frame of horizontal maps see Horizontal map.
Axes
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Log x-axis / Log y-axis | Not shown for time axes or heatmaps |
| Invert x-axis / Invert y-axis | |
| Swap y-axis sides | Shows the y-axis ticks and label on the right. With a secondary axis, the primary axis moves to the right and the secondary axis to the left |
| Fit x-axis / y-axis exactly to the data range (no margins) | 1-D plots only. Removes the margins matplotlib adds at both ends |
| Set x-axis / y-axis range manually | Minimum and maximum as numbers. Not shown for a time x-axis |
| Time axis format | strftime presets for date-time axes (Year / Year-month / Year-month-day / Month/day / Hour:minute / Custom...) |
Labels
"x-axis label" and "y-axis label" (when left blank, the default label shown faintly in the input field, such as "variable name [units]", is used), "Secondary (right) axis label" when a secondary axis exists, "Font size" (default 10) and "Set text color".
Ticks
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Tick label font size | Default 10 |
| Show x / y tick labels | Turn off to hide only the text (the tick marks remain) |
| x / y tick label rotation (deg) | |
| x / y tick positions | Auto / Equal interval (0 hides ticks) / Specify positions directly (comma-separated, uneven spacing allowed). With direct positions, "Use custom labels at tick positions" lets you place strings such as 0°, 90°E (same count as the positions). Not supported on time axes |
| Show x / y minor ticks | Adds finer tick marks between the major ticks |
| Set tick line width | Major and minor ticks get the same width |
| Show x / y gridlines | Grid lines. Color (default gray), width (default 0.5), line style (default dotted) |
Frame, background and lines
The "Frame & background" section exists in every mode except the horizontal map.
- "Frame": the edges to show (Top / Bottom / Left / Right), "Set edge width", "Set edge color". Cross-sections have only the width.
- "Background": "Set background color", and "Add shaded span" shades an x or y interval as a band (shading direction, range, fill color (default #ffd7d7), opacity (default 0.3)). On a time axis the range is chosen with a time slider.
- "Lines": "Add line" draws a vertical line at constant x or a horizontal line at constant y (value, line color, width, opacity, line style (default dashed), legend label, text at the line end with its font size and color). Lines are drawn on top of the data.
Legend
"Legend" exists for the 1-D plot, the 1-D plot (aggregation) and the scatter plot of the 2-D plot. Set "Show legend" (default on), "Position" (matplotlib location names such as best or upper left) and "Font size" (default 10). Ticking "Set position by coordinates (outside the frame allowed)" lets you place the lower-left corner of the legend directly in coordinates where the lower-left of the plot frame is (0, 0) and the upper-right is (1, 1). x = 1.02, y = 0 puts it outside the frame on the right (bottom-aligned); x = 0, y = -0.25 puts it below the frame (left-aligned). A legend placed outside the frame is not clipped when the image is saved.