How to Set Plot Background Color in Matplotlib
- Set Background Color of The Specific Plot
- Set Default Plot Background Color For Multiple Plots in Matplotlib
set_facecolor(color) of the axes object sets the background, or in other words, face color of the corresponding plot.
Set Background Color of The Specific Plot
We need to get the axes object before calling the set_facecolor() method.
1. Matlab-alike stateful API in Matplotlib
plt.plot(x, y)
ax = plt.gca()
Complete Example Codes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot(range(5), range(5, 10))
ax = plt.gca()
ax.set_facecolor('m')
plt.show()
2. Create Figure and Axis in Object-oriented Method
figure and axes objects could be created together,
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
Or create figure first, and then initiate the axes afterward.
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
Complete Example Codes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1)
ax.plot(range(5), range(5, 10))
ax.set_facecolor('m')
plt.show()
Or,
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
ax.plot(range(5), range(5, 10))
ax.set_facecolor('m')
plt.show()
Set Default Plot Background Color For Multiple Plots in Matplotlib
If we need to set default background color for multiple plots, we could set the axes.facecolor property in rcParams object.
plt.rcParams['axes.facecolor'] = color
Complete Example Codes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.rcParams['axes.facecolor'] = 'm'
plt.subplot(1,2, 1)
plt.plot(range(5), range(5, 10))
plt.subplot(1,2, 2)
plt.plot(range(5), range(10, 5, -1))
plt.show()
As you see, the background color of the two plots is the same.
