Plot

Plots.jl

Plots is a visualization interface and toolset. It sits above other backends, like GR, PythonPlot, PGFPlotsX, or Plotly, connecting commands with implementation. If one backend does not support your desired features or make the right trade-offs, you can just switch to another backend with one command. No need to change your code. No need to learn a new syntax. Plots might be the last plotting package you ever learn.

fig = plot(-10:0.1:10, sin.(-10:0.1:10),
    bg_color=RGB(0.12),
    label="sin(x)",
    linewidth=1.5,           
    linecolor=:yellow3,     
    marker=:circle,        
    markersize=3,      
    markercolor=:yellow3,    
    markerstrokewidth=0,
    title="Plot of sin(x)",
    xlabel="x",
    ylabel="y")
savefig(fig, "sin.png")

It can be very annoying to enter so many parameters every time you plot, so Plots provides a default parameter function. You can set the global default parameters via default().

default(fontfamily="arial",
    bg_color=:transparent,
    linewidth=1.5,
    tickfont=(12, RGB(0)), # RGB(0)=:black
    guidefont=(12, RGB(0)),
    fg_color_axis=RGB(0),
    fg_color_border=RGB(0),
    markersize=3,
    markerstrokewidth=0,
    legendfontsize=11,
    legendfontcolor=RGB(0),
    legend_foreground_color=RGB(0))

To add a plot to the current figure, use the ! version of the function, e.g. plot!(). To draw on a specified figure, use fig as the first argument: plot(fig, ...).

CairoMakie.jl

CairoMakie is suitable for drawing two-dimensional, static images. It offers many parameters for detailed customization. We can write a function to wrap commonly used settings.

"""
    cairomakie_plot(x, y; lable=nothing, yscale0=identity)
`yscale0`: identity, log10
"""
function cairomakie_plot(x, y; lable=nothing, yscale0=identity)
    with_theme(theme_dark()) do
        fig = Figure(fontsize=14, size=(700, 400))
        xrange = (minimum(x), maximum(x))
        ax = Axis(fig[1, 1],
            xlabel="x", xtickalign=1, xgridvisible=false, # xticklabelsize=14
            ylabel="y", ytickalign=1, yscale=yscale0,
            limits=(xrange, nothing))
        lines!(ax, x, y, linewidth=2, linestyle=:solid, color=:tomato, label=lable)
        scatter!(ax, x, y, marker=:circle, color=:tomato)
        axislegend(ax, labelsize=15) # position=:lb
        display(fig)
        # save("my_first_figure.svg", fig)
    end
end

The syntax of with_theme() do ... allows a one-time application of theme styles. The default style is restored on the next plotting.

To permanently change the drawing theme, one can use set_theme!(merge(theme_dark(), theme_latexfonts())).

Example

Let’s draw a sine function and save it as a vector graph:

using CairoMakie
f(x) = sin(x)
x = -10:0.1:10
y = f.(x)
cairomakie_plot(x, y)