How to Change Legend Font Size in Matplotlib

1. rcParams Method to Specify the Matplotlib Legend Font Size
2. plt.legend(fontsize= ) Method to Specify Matplotlib Legend Font Size
3. Use the Legend prop Property to Set the Legend Font Size

We have different methods to set the legend font size in Matplotlib.

rcParams Method to Specify the Matplotlib Legend Font Size

rcParams is a dictionary to handle Matplotlib properties and default styles in Matplotlib.

1. plt.rc('legend', fontsize= ) Method to Specify the Matplotlib Legend Font Size

fontsize could be the integer that has the unit of points, or a size string like

xx - -small
x - small
small
medium
large
x - large
xx - large

plt.rc("legend", fontsize=16)

plt.rc("legend", fontsize="medium")

2. plt.rcparams.update() Method to Specify the Matplotlib Legend Font Size

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)

plt.plot(x, np.sin(x), label="sin(x)")

params = {"legend.fontsize": 16, "legend.handlelength": 3}

plt.rcParams.update(params)

plt.legend(loc="upper left")

plt.tight_layout()

plt.show()

legend.fontsize specifies the Matplotlib legend font size, and legend.handlelength specifies the length of the legend handles in font-size units.

plt.rcParams.update(params) updates the Matplotlib properties and styles with the dictionary params as defined above.

You could also update the rcParams dictionary by putting the key in the parentheses [].

plt.rcParams["legend.fontsize"] = 16
plt.rcParams["legend.handlelength"] = 16

plt.legend(fontsize= ) Method to Specify Matplotlib Legend Font Size

plt.legend(fontsize=) could specify the Matplotlib legend font size for each legend when it is created.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)

plt.plot(x, np.sin(x), label="sin(x)")

plt.legend(fontsize=16, loc="upper right")

plt.show()

Use the Legend prop Property to Set the Legend Font Size

prop property in the legend could set the individual font size of the Matplotlib plot legend. The value of prop is the dictionary of keywords from matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties.

plt.legend(prop={"size": 16})

Example:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)

plt.plot(x, np.sin(x), label="sin(x)")

plt.legend(prop={"size": 16}, loc="best")

plt.show()