How to place inline labels in a line plot

Question

In Matplotlib, it's not too tough to make a legend (example_legend(), below), but I think it's better style to put labels right on the curves being plotted (as in example_inline(), below). This can be very fiddly, because I have to specify coordinates by hand, and, if I re-format the plot, I probably have to reposition the labels. Is there a way to automatically generate labels on curves in Matplotlib? Bonus points for being able to orient the text at an angle corresponding to the angle of the curve.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def example_legend():
    plt.clf()
    x = np.linspace(0, 1, 101)
    y1 = np.sin(x * np.pi / 2)
    y2 = np.cos(x * np.pi / 2)
    plt.plot(x, y1, label='sin')
    plt.plot(x, y2, label='cos')
    plt.legend()

def example_inline():
    plt.clf()
    x = np.linspace(0, 1, 101)
    y1 = np.sin(x * np.pi / 2)
    y2 = np.cos(x * np.pi / 2)
    plt.plot(x, y1, label='sin')
    plt.plot(x, y2, label='cos')
    plt.text(0.08, 0.2, 'sin')
    plt.text(0.9, 0.2, 'cos')

Answer 1

Nice question, a while ago I've experimented a bit with this, but haven't used it a lot because it's still not bulletproof. I divided the plot area into a 32x32 grid and calculated a 'potential field' for the best position of a label for each line according the following rules:

• white space is a good place for a label
• Label should be near corresponding line
• Label should be away from the other lines

The code was something like this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from scipy import ndimage


def my_legend(axis = None):

    if axis == None:
        axis = plt.gca()

    N = 32
    Nlines = len(axis.lines)
    print Nlines

    xmin, xmax = axis.get_xlim()
    ymin, ymax = axis.get_ylim()

    # the 'point of presence' matrix
    pop = np.zeros((Nlines, N, N), dtype=np.float)    

    for l in range(Nlines):
        # get xy data and scale it to the NxN squares
        xy = axis.lines[l].get_xydata()
        xy = (xy - [xmin,ymin]) / ([xmax-xmin, ymax-ymin]) * N
        xy = xy.astype(np.int32)
        # mask stuff outside plot        
        mask = (xy[:,0] >= 0) & (xy[:,0] < N) & (xy[:,1] >= 0) & (xy[:,1] < N)
        xy = xy[mask]
        # add to pop
        for p in xy:
            pop[l][tuple(p)] = 1.0

    # find whitespace, nice place for labels
    ws = 1.0 - (np.sum(pop, axis=0) > 0) * 1.0 
    # don't use the borders
    ws[:,0]   = 0
    ws[:,N-1] = 0
    ws[0,:]   = 0  
    ws[N-1,:] = 0  

    # blur the pop's
    for l in range(Nlines):
        pop[l] = ndimage.gaussian_filter(pop[l], sigma=N/5)

    for l in range(Nlines):
        # positive weights for current line, negative weight for others....
        w = -0.3 * np.ones(Nlines, dtype=np.float)
        w[l] = 0.5

        # calculate a field         
        p = ws + np.sum(w[:, np.newaxis, np.newaxis] * pop, axis=0)
        plt.figure()
        plt.imshow(p, interpolation='nearest')
        plt.title(axis.lines[l].get_label())

        pos = np.argmax(p)  # note, argmax flattens the array first 
        best_x, best_y =  (pos / N, pos % N) 
        x = xmin + (xmax-xmin) * best_x / N       
        y = ymin + (ymax-ymin) * best_y / N       


        axis.text(x, y, axis.lines[l].get_label(), 
                  horizontalalignment='center',
                  verticalalignment='center')


plt.close('all')

x = np.linspace(0, 1, 101)
y1 = np.sin(x * np.pi / 2)
y2 = np.cos(x * np.pi / 2)
y3 = x * x
plt.plot(x, y1, 'b', label='blue')
plt.plot(x, y2, 'r', label='red')
plt.plot(x, y3, 'g', label='green')
my_legend()
plt.show()

And the resulting plot: