PlotZ

If you are plotting graphs for scientific publication, chances are that

• your data has been produced by a python program (or by some other C/C++/Fortran code, but you want to post-process it in a higher-level language like python);

• you are eventually going to write a paper using LaTeX in which you'll want your figures to be nice and tightly integrated with the rest of the document;

• you'll then reuse the same figures in a Beamer presentation, where you will still want everything to be nicely integrated with your theme... but you might not like having to re-work everything so that fonts are legible and lines thick enough.

PlotZ aimz at producing publication-quality plots for inclusion in LaTeX documents. It is designed to be as simple to use as possible, with a Python API allowing to produce, post-process and plot your data in the same environment. PlotZ actually produces TikZ code, that will seamlessly integrate in your LaTeX documents/presentations. The provided command allows resizing PlotZ images on the fly, so that your picture will always come right, whether it appears as a small subfigure in a paper or in a Beamer slide.

Examples gallery

Look at the Examples Gallery to see what PlotZ can produce (and how to do it).

Installation

Simply clone this repository somewhere, and source the accompanying environment file to setup the relevant environment variables:

git clone https://github.com/ffevotte/plotz.git
source plotz/env.sh

Basic usage

Python script

Put the following content in a python file (named myplot.py, for example):

from plotz import *
from math import sin, pi

with Plot("myfigure") as p:
    p.title = r"My first \texttt{PlotZ} plot"
    p.x.label = "$x$"
    p.y.label = "$y$"
    p.y.label_rotate = True

    p.plot(Function(sin, samples=50, range=(0, pi)),
           title=r"$\sin(x)$")

    p.legend("north east")

then execute the code:

source /path/to/plotz/env.sh
python myplot.py

You should get two files:

• myfigure.pdf is a rendered version of your figure (similar to the image shown above),
• myfigure.tex is a LaTeX file that you can import in a LaTeX document

LaTeX document

In order to include a PlotZ figure in a LaTeX document, the only steps needed are:

• include the plotz package in your preamble
• use the plotz command to include your figure

For example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{plotz}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering
  \plotz[width=0.8\textwidth]{myfigure}
  \caption{A \texttt{PlotZ} figure}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

If you specify an optional size to the plotz command, the plot will then be scaled automatically to obtain a figure of the desired size. Notice how this differs from a simple scaling (such as what would be obtained using \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{...} or \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{...}) in that lines thicknesses, font sizes, etc. remain constant.

The same figure can also be used in a Beamer presentation, where it will adapt to its new environment. Notice how the font changed to be consistent with the beamer theme. And also note that font size and line thickness remain big enough for the figure to remain legible even by the audience sitting in the back of the room:

Contributing

If you make improvements to this code or have suggestions, please do not hesitate to fork the repository or submit bug reports on github. The repository's URL is:

https://github.com/ffevotte/plotz.git

License

Copyright (C) 2017 François Févotte.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Acknowledgement

The color schemes included in PlotZ come from the excellent ColorBrewer tool.