How to change separation between tick labels and axis labels

Question

My axis labels often look not good (too close to tick labels) when I use Matplotlib.

How to set distance between tick labels and axis label? I just need to enlarge distance between "Number of stars" label and corresponding tick labels. Maybe latex \vspace{} is working but I don't know how to implement it. fig.subplots_adjust(left=) is not a solution.

Gabionade

If I understand you correctly, you are looking for the labelpad parameter in the ax.set_ylabel() method. This takes a number of points to be used as spacing between the axis and the corresponding label. – Futtock

Thank you!!! Write this as answer. – Gabionade

Do you know how to do the same for 'drawparallels' in Basemap (Matplotlib)? – Gabionade

Answer 1

To move the axis label further away from the axis, you can include an argument to the optional labelpad parameter of the corresponding method used to set the label, i.e. ax.set_ylabel() or ax.set_xlabel(). This parameter takes a scalar which is the spacing between the axis and the label given in points.

As to achieve the same effect when using the drawparallels() method of Basemap, I believe you can include an argument to the parameters xoffset or yoffset, depending on which axis you want to alter the placement of the text. The arguments of these parameters have "units" of map width, meaning e.g. xoffset=0.05 makes the offset of the x-ticks 5 % of the map width.

Gardel

Rolled back to my original answer, see this post for more info as to why. – Futtock

while this answer was satisfactory for the questioner, it is not entirely right: labelpad does not set the distance between the axis and the axis label, it sets the distance between the tick labels and the axis label. – Davita

Answer 2

This is a really subjective question, but I'll take a stab anyway:

The figsize kwarg takes the width and height of the figure in inches.

A4 paper is 8.3" by 11.7". So let's say, for the sake of argument, you want 1" margins.

paperheight = 11.7
paperwidth = 8.3
margin = 1.0

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(paperwidth - 2*margin, paperheight - 2*margin))

# plotting stuff

fig.tight_layout()
fig.savefig(...)

The call to tight_layout() will give the labels a bit more room and make sure that everything is expanded out to the figure edges as much as practicable.

Unwatched

Sorry, I have changed my question. – Gabionade

@user2579566 I see that. It doesn't change my answer however. Simply change paperheight and paperwidth as needed and change margin as desired – Unwatched

@user2579566 can you be more specific? works on my end. – Unwatched

My axes labels overlap figures when a I use your values (11.7,8.3,1.0) – Gabionade

@user2579566 It's going to be impossible to diagnose until you show the code you're using. Are you calling fig.tight_layout()? – Unwatched

Yes I do. I just need to enlarge distance between left "Number of stars" labels and corresponding pictures. I use usual fig.add_subplot() and plot() functions. – Gabionade

@user2579566 I simply cannot make any further suggestions until you provide a short, self-contained example that demonstrates the problem you're seeing. I started it for you in my response. All you need to do is fill in your part where it says # plotting stuff (sscce.org) – Unwatched

let us continue this discussion in chat – Unwatched