René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"New rcParams requests","articleBody":"## Request 1: `imshow` should have separate `rcParams` for removing ticks and grid.\n\nThe `image` key should take additional parameters, so that x and y ticks are not present by default, and the grid is not overlaid by default if `axes.grid` is `True`. For example `image.axis: False` would be ideal. To me, it quite reasonable to want `axes.grid: True` as the default for numerical plots as well a separate default for `imshow` since they have very different use cases.\n\nHere is an example:\n\n```\nimport matplotlib\nmatplotlib.rcdefaults()\nmatplotlib.use('qt4agg') # or whatever\nmatplotlib.rcParams['axes.grid'] = True\nmatplotlib.rcParams['axes.axisbelow'] = True\nmatplotlib.rcParams['grid.linestyle'] = '--'\nmatplotlib.rcParams['grid.color'] = 'red'\nmatplotlib.rcParams['grid.linewidth'] = 2.0\n\nimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt\nfrom numpy import zeros,cos,linspace\n\nx = linspace(0,6.28,100)\n\nfig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,6))\n\nax1 = fig.add_subplot(121)\nax1.plot(x,cos(x+2*cos(2*x)),lw=3)\nax1.set_title('Ticks and grid are a nice\\ndefault for numerical plots.')\n\nax2 = fig.add_subplot(122)\nax2.imshow(zeros((100,100)), cmap=plt.cm.gray)\nax2.set_title('Ticks and grid are not a nice\\ndefault for image plots.')\n\nplt.show()\n```\n\n![image-axis](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1588456/11591888/20a2ea08-9a69-11e5-8f89-f9577b46bbe6.png)\n## Request 2: Fix inconsistent `rcParams` behavior with regard to plots that add patches.\n\nSome plots that use patches follow the `axes.prop_cycle`, while others do not. For example `hist` obeys both `axes.prop_cycle` and `patch.edgecolor`, but ignores `patch.facecolor` (even if `axes.prop_cycle` is not set); however, `violinplot` ignores everything except `patch.edgecolor`, which is not apparent due to the default `alpha` setting for `violinplot` (why is this default??). Here is an example:\n\n```\nimport matplotlib\nfrom cycler import cycler\n\nmatplotlib.rcdefaults()\nmatplotlib.use('qt4agg')\nmatplotlib.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'] = cycler('color', ['pink','purple','salmon'])\nmatplotlib.rcParams['patch.facecolor'] = 'pink'\nmatplotlib.rcParams['patch.edgecolor'] = 'blue'\n\nimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt\nfrom numpy.random import randn\n\nfig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,6))\n\nX = randn(100)\n\nax = fig.add_subplot(121)\nfor i in range(3):\n    ax.hist(X+2*i)\n\nax = fig.add_subplot(122)\nfor i in range(3):\n    ax.violinplot(X+2*i)\n\nplt.show()\n```\n\n![violinplot-color-test](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1588456/11592284/9e8f96c6-9a6b-11e5-9cc5-d57348fb3498.png)\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/notmatthancock","@type":"Person","name":"notmatthancock"},"datePublished":"2015-12-04T14:49:43.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":4},"url":"https://github.com/5618/matplotlib/issues/5618"}