Text Properties in Matplotlib – Vista Academy

Text properties in Matplotlib allow customization of the appearance and layout of text elements in plots, offering control over font style, color, size, alignment, transparency, and more.

Text Layout and Positioning Properties

• Position – Coordinates (x, y) to place text.
• Rotation – Text rotation in degrees or values like ‘vertical’.
• Horizontal Alignment (ha) – Aligns text: ‘center’, ‘right’, ‘left’.
• Vertical Alignment (va) – Aligns text: ‘center’, ‘top’, ‘bottom’, ‘baseline’.
• Multialignment – Controls justification of multi-line text: ‘left’, ‘center’, ‘right’.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(7, 4))
plt.axis((0, 10, 0, 10))

ax.text(5, 7, 'Centered Text with 0 rotation', horizontalalignment='center', verticalalignment='center', rotation=0)
ax.text(1, 5, 'Right Aligned Text with 90 degrees rotation', ha='right', va='center', rotation=90)
ax.text(9, 5, 'Left Aligned Text with -90 degrees rotation', ha='left', va='center', rotation=-90)
ax.text(5, 2, 'Multiline\nText', ha='center', va='center', multialignment='center')

plt.show()

Text Color and Transparency Properties

• color – Sets text color.
• backgroundcolor – Sets background color behind the text.
• alpha – Controls text transparency (0.0 to 1.0).

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(7, 4))
plt.axis((0, 10, 0, 10))

ax.text(3, 8, 'Plain text without any property')
ax.text(3, 6, 'Colored Text', color='blue')
ax.text(3, 4, 'Background Color', backgroundcolor='yellow')
ax.text(3, 2, 'Transparent Text', alpha=0.5)

plt.show()

Font Customization Properties

• family – Font type: ‘serif’, ‘sans-serif’, etc.
• style/fontstyle – ‘normal’, ‘italic’, ‘oblique’
• weight/fontweight – Font thickness: ‘bold’, ‘light’, etc.
• size/fontsize – Font size: 10, 12, ‘x-large’, etc.
• name/fontname – Font name like ‘Sans’, ‘Courier’.
• variant – ‘normal’, ‘small-caps’

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(7, 4))
plt.axis((0, 10, 0, 10))

sample_text = ("Vista Academy")

plt.text(0, 9, 'Oblique text placed at the center with a 25-degree rotation',
   fontstyle='oblique', fontweight='heavy', ha='center', va='baseline', rotation=45, wrap=True)
plt.text(7.5, 0.5, 'Text placed at the left with a 45-degree rotation', ha='left', rotation=45, wrap=True)
plt.text(5, 5, sample_text + '\nMiddle', ha='center', va='center', color='green', fontsize=24)
plt.text(10.5, 7, 'Text placed at the right with a -45-degree rotation', ha='right', rotation=-45, wrap=True)
plt.text(5, 10, 'Sans text with oblique style is placed at the center', fontsize=10, fontname='Sans', 
   style='oblique', ha='center', va='baseline', wrap=True)
plt.text(6, 3, 'A serif family text is placed right with the italic style', family='serif', 
   style='italic', ha='right', wrap=True)
plt.text(-0.5, 0, 'Small-caps variant text is placed at the left with a -25-degree rotation', 
   variant='small-caps', ha='left', rotation=-25, wrap=True)

plt.show()

Bounding Box and Clipping Properties

• bbox – Creates a background box with padding and color.
• clip_on – Enables or disables text clipping.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(7, 4))
plt.axis((0, 10, 0, 10))

plt.text(3, 7, 'Text with Bounding Box', bbox={'facecolor': 'yellow', 'edgecolor': 'blue', 'pad': 5})
plt.text(3, 5, 'Clipped Text', bbox={'facecolor': 'lightgreen', 'edgecolor': 'darkgreen', 'pad': 5}, clip_on=True)

plt.show()

Other Notable Properties

• label – Identifier for the text object.
• linespacing – Controls spacing between lines in multi-line text.
• picker – Allows picking (interacting) with text via mouse.

With these powerful text properties, you can precisely control how text appears and behaves in your plots for improved readability and aesthetics. Learn more only at Vista Academy.