Resizing axes with constrained layout

Constrained layout attempts to resize subplots in a figure so that there are no overlaps between axes objects and labels on the axes.

See Constrained Layout Guide for more details and Tight Layout guide for an alternative.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


def example_plot(ax):
    ax.plot([1, 2])
    ax.set_xlabel('x-label', fontsize=12)
    ax.set_ylabel('y-label', fontsize=12)
    ax.set_title('Title', fontsize=14)

If we don't use constrained_layout, then labels overlap the axes

fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, constrained_layout=False)

for ax in axs.flat:
    example_plot(ax)

adding constrained_layout=True automatically adjusts.

fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, constrained_layout=True)

for ax in axs.flat:
    example_plot(ax)

Below is a more complicated example using nested gridspecs.

fig = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True)

import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec

gs0 = gridspec.GridSpec(1, 2, figure=fig)

gs1 = gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(3, 1, subplot_spec=gs0[0])
for n in range(3):
    ax = fig.add_subplot(gs1[n])
    example_plot(ax)


gs2 = gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(2, 1, subplot_spec=gs0[1])
for n in range(2):
    ax = fig.add_subplot(gs2[n])
    example_plot(ax)

plt.show()

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References

The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpec
matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec