Matplotlib for Python Developers - Second Edition

Using a non-linear axis scale

Depending on the distribution of our data, a linear scale may not be the best way to fit in all useful data points in a figure. In this case, we may need to modify the scale of the axes into a log or symmetric log scale. In Matplotlib, this can be done by plt.xscale() and plt.yscale() before defining the axes, or by ax.set_xscale() and ax.set_yscale() after an axis is defined.

We do not need to change the scale of the entire axis. To display a part of the axis in linear scale, we adjust the linear threshold with the argument linthreshx or linthreshy. To obtain a smooth continuous line, we can also mask the non-positive numbers with the argument nonposx or nonposy.

The following code snippet is an example of the ...