Kris Kuhlman, on 2011-02-01 18:03, wrote: > I am trying to plot a large number of locations that need to be labeled. > Often the locations are quite clustered and the resulting text is > unreadable. I have been looking through the API and examples on the > matplotlib web page, and I don't see a straightforward way to plot text > labels, preventing them from overlapping. There is no easy answer to the > problem, since locating the labels so they are close to the point you want > to label, and not overlapping is a sort of optimization problem, I guess. > > Using annotate(), the location and alignment of the text can be fixed, but > you don't know the size of the resulting box until after draw() is called. > Once draw is called, you can inquire what the bounding box for a label is, > and then check to see if it overlaps with other labels, but this is an > iterative process, and draw() can be quite slow to call repeatedly. > > I guess unless you use a fixed-width font (possible, but not optimal), you > just don't know how big the labels will be, and therefore where they will > extend to, and then how they should be avoided. This involves coming up > with some sort of accounting system for the location and size of each text > box, outside of the matplotlib API, and seems sub-optimal. > > Has anybody dealt with this problem and come up with an elegant or efficient > solution?
Hi Kris, unfortunately, there isn't a turn-key solution implemented for this at the moment, but this would be something very useful and something I've been wanting to see in matplotlib, but never had a strong enough need to implement myself. Take a look here for the type of machinery that could be used to implement such functionality: http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/faq/howto_faq.html#automatically-make-room-for-tick-labels best, -- Paul Ivanov 314 address only used for lists, off-list direct email at: http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)! Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better price-free! Download using promo code Free_Logger_4_Dev2Dev. Offer expires February 28th, so secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY! http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsight-sfd2d
_______________________________________________ Matplotlib-users mailing list Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
