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>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Barrett <ba...@st...> writes:
 Paul> I occasionally use the scatter() function to make light
 Paul> curves of astronomical targets. The scale of the x-axis is
 Paul> often given in days with a range of 0.54 - 0.68 days. The
 Paul> y-axis is in counts. This type of data produces unusual
 Paul> scatter plots with the blue symbols being very elongated
 Paul> ovals (in the x-direction).
 Paul> Are there plans to change this behavior - maybe by drawing
 Paul> the symbols in device space instead of data or user space?
There are a couple of ways to do this.
The line style provides markers, the sizes of which are in points. If
you want fixed size markers independent of data coords, you can use
plot with the 'o' marker symbol (or any other marker symbol), and then
set the marker size, facecolor, and edgecolor, as you desire
 markers = plot(x, y, 'o')
 set(markers, 'markersize', 20)
 set(markers, 'markeredgecolor', 'k')
 set(markers, 'markerfacecolor', 'b')
The set function takes a sequence of markers and applies the arguments
to all of them. To control the marker properties separately, you can
do (for example)
 rgbs = [ ... ] # a len x list of rgb tuples
 sizes = [ ... ] # a len x list of marker sizes in points
 for m, rgb, size in zip(markers, rgbs, sizes):
 m.set_markerfacecolor(rgb)
 m.set_markersize(size)
 
See the documentation for matplotlib.lines for more info.
Patches (which is what scatter and hist create) on the other hand, are
in data coordinates by default. This too can be changed by setting
the transformation functions. You can, for example, specify the
patches in relative (0, 1) axes coords with a little extra work. All
the figure "Artists" can be placed with arbitrary transforms -- see
matplotlib.transforms for more info. Many of these features could use
some better documentation....
My guess is that you will be happy with the line markers -- let me
know.
JDH

I occasionally use the scatter() function to make light curves of 
astronomical targets. The scale of the x-axis is often given in days 
with a range of 0.54 - 0.68 days. The y-axis is in counts. This type 
of data produces unusual scatter plots with the blue symbols being very 
elongated ovals (in the x-direction).
Are there plans to change this behavior - maybe by drawing the symbols 
in device space instead of data or user space?
 -- Paul
-- 
Paul Barrett, PhD Space Telescope Science Institute
Phone: 410-338-4475 ESS/Science Software Branch
FAX: 410-338-4767 Baltimore, MD 21218

>>>>> "John" == John Gill <jn...@eu...> writes:
 John> I have some plots I'd like to print out and they would make
 John> better use of the paper if they were done landscape.
 John> Can the postscript backend do this?
Hi John,
I haven't had time to take a close look at this. My initial
suggestions is to experiment with the paper size
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('PS')
import matplotlib.backends.backend_ps as backend_ps
backend_ps.defaultPaperSize = 11,8.5 # default is 8.5, 11
You may also have to specify a landscape portrait at print time, or
rotate it.
I'll take a closer look later.
JDH