How to change the text color of font in legend?
Question:
Is there a way to change the font color of the legend in a matplotlib plot?
Specially in occasions where the background of the plot is dark, the default black text in the legend is hard or impossible to read.
Answers:
call Legend.get_texts() will get a list of Text object in the legend object:
import pylab as pl
pl.plot(randn(100), label="randn")
l = legend()
for text in l.get_texts():
text.set_color("red")
You can also do it with setp():
import pylab as plt
leg = plt.legend(framealpha = 0, loc = 'best')
for text in leg.get_texts():
plt.setp(text, color = 'w')
this method also allows you to set the fontsize and any number of other font properties in one line (listed here: http://matplotlib.org/users/text_props.html)
full example:
import pylab as plt
x = range(100)
y1 = range(100,200)
y2 = range(50,150)
fig = plt.figure(facecolor = 'k')
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, axisbg = 'k')
ax.tick_params(color='w', labelcolor='w')
for spine in ax.spines.values():
spine.set_edgecolor('w')
ax.plot(x, y1, c = 'w', label = 'y1')
ax.plot(x, y2, c = 'g', label = 'y2')
leg = plt.legend(framealpha = 0, loc = 'best')
for text in leg.get_texts():
plt.setp(text, color = 'w')
plt.show()
Because plt.setp broadcasts over iterables, you can also modify the text color in one line:
# Show some cool graphs
legend = plt.legend()
plt.setp(legend.get_texts(), color='w')
The last line will apply the colour to all elements in the collection of texts.
As of matplotlib version 3.3.0, you can now directly use the keyword argument labelcolor in matplotlib.pyplot.legend().
Example using the same color as the corresponding artist by setting labelcolor='linecolor':
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.figure(figsize=(4, 3))
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 0, '-', label='spam')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 1, ':', label='ham')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 2, 'o', label='eggs')
plt.legend(labelcolor='linecolor')
Example changing all text to white by setting labelcolor='w', e.g. for dark backgrounds:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.figure(figsize=(4, 3))
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 0, '-', label='spam')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 1, ':', label='ham')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 2, 'o', label='eggs')
plt.legend(facecolor='k', labelcolor='w')
Anyone looking to change the color of the TITLE of the legend; seems to only be available through the side door:
leg._legend_title_box._text.set_color('#FFFFFF')
Is there a way to change the font color of the legend in a matplotlib plot?
Specially in occasions where the background of the plot is dark, the default black text in the legend is hard or impossible to read.
call Legend.get_texts() will get a list of Text object in the legend object:
import pylab as pl
pl.plot(randn(100), label="randn")
l = legend()
for text in l.get_texts():
text.set_color("red")
You can also do it with setp():
import pylab as plt
leg = plt.legend(framealpha = 0, loc = 'best')
for text in leg.get_texts():
plt.setp(text, color = 'w')
this method also allows you to set the fontsize and any number of other font properties in one line (listed here: http://matplotlib.org/users/text_props.html)
full example:
import pylab as plt
x = range(100)
y1 = range(100,200)
y2 = range(50,150)
fig = plt.figure(facecolor = 'k')
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, axisbg = 'k')
ax.tick_params(color='w', labelcolor='w')
for spine in ax.spines.values():
spine.set_edgecolor('w')
ax.plot(x, y1, c = 'w', label = 'y1')
ax.plot(x, y2, c = 'g', label = 'y2')
leg = plt.legend(framealpha = 0, loc = 'best')
for text in leg.get_texts():
plt.setp(text, color = 'w')
plt.show()
Because plt.setp broadcasts over iterables, you can also modify the text color in one line:
# Show some cool graphs
legend = plt.legend()
plt.setp(legend.get_texts(), color='w')
The last line will apply the colour to all elements in the collection of texts.
As of matplotlib version 3.3.0, you can now directly use the keyword argument labelcolor in matplotlib.pyplot.legend().
Example using the same color as the corresponding artist by setting labelcolor='linecolor':
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.figure(figsize=(4, 3))
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 0, '-', label='spam')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 1, ':', label='ham')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 2, 'o', label='eggs')
plt.legend(labelcolor='linecolor')
Example changing all text to white by setting labelcolor='w', e.g. for dark backgrounds:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.figure(figsize=(4, 3))
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 0, '-', label='spam')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 1, ':', label='ham')
plt.plot(np.arange(10), np.random.rand(10) * 2, 'o', label='eggs')
plt.legend(facecolor='k', labelcolor='w')
Anyone looking to change the color of the TITLE of the legend; seems to only be available through the side door:
leg._legend_title_box._text.set_color('#FFFFFF')