Matplotlib: draw grid lines behind other graph elements

Question

In Matplotlib, I make dashed grid lines as follows:

fig = pylab.figure()    
ax = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
ax.yaxis.grid(color='gray', linestyle='dashed')

however, I can't find out how (or even if it is possible) to make the grid lines be drawn behind other graph elements, such as bars. Changing the order of adding the grid versus adding other elements makes no difference.

Is it possible to make it so that the grid lines appear behind everything else?

Sagacious

ax.set_axisbelow(True) still works. Also nice for pdf output... – Comber

I would have expected ax.set_axisbelow(True) to be the default... – Egocentrism

Answer 1

According to this - http://matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/axis-elements-and-zorder-td5346.html - you can use Axis.set_axisbelow(True)

(I am currently installing matplotlib for the first time, so have no idea if that's correct - I just found it by googling "matplotlib z order grid" - "z order" is typically used to describe this kind of thing (z being the axis "out of the page"))

Evelynneven

Is it possible to have the gridlines below the bar/line while retaining the labels on top? I also posted this quesiton separately #29522947 – Tripalmitin

It might be this matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/…, ancient thread though. – Ermines

Answer 2

To me, it was unclear how to apply andrew cooke's answer, so this is a complete solution based on that:

ax.set_axisbelow(True)
ax.yaxis.grid(color='gray', linestyle='dashed')

Gley

Very nice, works like a charme, here! – Flapdoodle

As of June 2023 this is the only answer that has worked for me. Setting zorders to 0 or even negative for the grid and high for the plot element hasn't worked. – Batchelor

Answer 3

If you want to validate the setting for all figures, you may set

plt.rc('axes', axisbelow=True)

or

plt.rcParams['axes.axisbelow'] = True

It works for Matplotlib>=2.0.

Klemens

Best answer, since people will likely want this to be consistent across all figures. – Yukikoyukio

Make sure to put plt.grid() (or modified) after plt.rc('axes', axisbelow=True). – Maryammaryann

Answer 4

I had the same problem and the following worked:

[line.set_zorder(3) for line in ax.lines]
fig.show() # to update

Increase 3to a higher value if it does not work.

Stool

Answer 5

You can also set the zorder kwarg in matplotlib.pyplot.grid

plt.grid(which='major', axis='y', zorder=-1.0)

Anaesthetize

didn't work for me – Womanizer

@HomeroEsmeraldo you have to set the zorder also on everything else that gets painted. – Weever

Answer 6

Just make sure the points have a higher zorder value than the gridlines, e.g.:

plt.scatter(x,y,c="k",marker="x",zorder=2)

followed by

plt.grid(linestyle="--",alpha=0.5,zorder=1)

Merchantman

Answer 7

You can try to use one of Seaborn's styles. For instance:

import seaborn as sns  
sns.set_style("whitegrid")

Not only the gridlines will get behind but the looks are nicer.

Yemane

Answer 8

For some (like me) it might be interesting to draw the grid behind only "some" of the other elements. For granular control of the draw order, you can use matplotlib.artist.Artist.set_zorder on the axes directly:

ax.yaxis.grid(color='gray', linestyle='dashed')
ax.set_zorder(3)

This is mentioned in the notes on matplotlib.axes.Axes.grid.

Roberts

Answer 9

These answers weren't working for me (zorder, axisbelow, set_zorder):

fig, ax = plt.subplots(3, 1, dpi=200)
ax[0].yaxis.grid(True, which='major', linestyle='--')
ax[0].boxplot(data, positions=[0, 0.5], widths=[0.5, 0.5])

Instead, changing the background color of the graph elements using patch_artist worked for me:

l = ax[0].boxplot(data, positions=[0, 0.5], widths=[0.5, 0.5],
  patch_artist=True)
for bplot in (l,):
  for patch, color in zip(bplot['boxes'], ['white', 'white']):
    patch.set_facecolor(color)
``

Unmerciful

Answer 10

ax.grid(color='grey', alpha=0.2)

set the transparency of gridlines to low using alpha=0.2 this might make the gridlines appear behind the actual graph

Perri