Plot directive documentation

A directive for including a matplotlib plot in a Sphinx document.

By default, in HTML output, plot will include a .png file with a link to a high-res .png and .pdf. In LaTeX output, it will include a .pdf.

The source code for the plot may be included in one of three ways:

1. A path to a source file as the argument to the directive:

   .. plot:: path/to/plot.py
   

   When a path to a source file is given, the content of the directive may optionally contain a caption for the plot:

   .. plot:: path/to/plot.py
   
      This is the caption for the plot
   

   Additionally, one may specify the name of a function to call (with no arguments) immediately after importing the module:

   .. plot:: path/to/plot.py plot_function1
   

2. Included as inline content to the directive:

   .. plot::
   
      import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
      import matplotlib.image as mpimg
      import numpy as np
      img = mpimg.imread('_static/stinkbug.png')
      imgplot = plt.imshow(img)
   

3. Using doctest syntax:

   .. plot::
      A plotting example:
      >>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
      >>> plt.plot([1,2,3], [4,5,6])
   

Options

The plot directive supports the following options:

format : {‘python’, ‘doctest’}

Specify the format of the input

include-source : bool

Whether to display the source code. The default can be changed using the plot_include_source variable in conf.py

encoding : str

If this source file is in a non-UTF8 or non-ASCII encoding, the encoding must be specified using the :encoding: option. The encoding will not be inferred using the -*- coding -*- metacomment.

context : bool or str

If provided, the code will be run in the context of all previous plot directives for which the :context: option was specified. This only applies to inline code plot directives, not those run from files. If the :context: reset option is specified, the context is reset for this and future plots, and previous figures are closed prior to running the code. :context:close-figs keeps the context but closes previous figures before running the code.

nofigs : bool

If specified, the code block will be run, but no figures will be inserted. This is usually useful with the :context: option.

Additionally, this directive supports all of the options of the image directive, except for target (since plot will add its own target). These include alt, height, width, scale, align and class.

Configuration options

The plot directive has the following configuration options:

plot_include_source

Default value for the include-source option

plot_html_show_source_link

Whether to show a link to the source in HTML.

plot_pre_code

Code that should be executed before each plot. If not specified or None it will default to a string containing:

import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

plot_basedir

Base directory, to which plot:: file names are relative to. (If None or empty, file names are relative to the directory where the file containing the directive is.)

plot_formats

File formats to generate. List of tuples or strings:

[(suffix, dpi), suffix, ...]

that determine the file format and the DPI. For entries whose DPI was omitted, sensible defaults are chosen. When passing from the command line through sphinx_build the list should be passed as suffix:dpi,suffix:dpi, ….

plot_html_show_formats

Whether to show links to the files in HTML.

plot_rcparams

A dictionary containing any non-standard rcParams that should be applied before each plot.

plot_apply_rcparams

By default, rcParams are applied when context option is not used in a plot directive. This configuration option overrides this behavior and applies rcParams before each plot.

plot_working_directory

By default, the working directory will be changed to the directory of the example, so the code can get at its data files, if any. Also its path will be added to sys.path so it can import any helper modules sitting beside it. This configuration option can be used to specify a central directory (also added to sys.path) where data files and helper modules for all code are located.

plot_template

Provide a customized template for preparing restructured text.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.mark_plot_labels(app, document)

To make plots referenceable, we need to move the reference from the “htmlonly” (or “latexonly”) node to the actual figure node itself.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.out_of_date(original, derived)

Returns True if derivative is out-of-date wrt original, both of which are full file paths.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.plot_directive(name, arguments, options, content, lineno, content_offset, block_text, state, state_machine)

Implementation of the .. plot:: directive.

See the module docstring for details.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.remove_coding(text)

Remove the coding comment, which six.exec_ doesn’t like.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.render_figures(code, code_path, output_dir, output_base, context, function_name, config, context_reset=False, close_figs=False)

Run a pyplot script and save the images in output_dir.

Save the images under output_dir with file names derived from output_base

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.run_code(code, code_path, ns=None, function_name=None)

Import a Python module from a path, and run the function given by name, if function_name is not None.

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.split_code_at_show(text)

Split code at plt.show()

matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive.unescape_doctest(text)

Extract code from a piece of text, which contains either Python code or doctests.