Set default figure size in inline mode to (6,4).

Otherwise, unless users have configured it manually, the default of
(8, 6) that mpl uses produces giant figures on the canvas that aren't
particularly useful.

Since controlling the figure size in inline mode may be a more
frequent need, added a top-level helper (most people won't know what
the right call is to make otherwise).

IPython/lib/pylabtools.py

@@ -1,196 +1,202 b''
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 """Pylab (matplotlib) support utilities.
 
 Authors
 -------
 
 * Fernando Perez.
 * Brian Granger
 """
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #  Copyright (C) 2009  The IPython Development Team
 #
 #  Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.  The full license is in
 #  the file COPYING, distributed as part of this software.
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 from IPython.utils.decorators import flag_calls
 
 # If user specifies a GUI, that dictates the backend, otherwise we read the
 # user's mpl default from the mpl rc structure
 backends = {'tk': 'TkAgg',
             'gtk': 'GTKAgg',
             'wx': 'WXAgg',
             'qt': 'Qt4Agg', # qt3 not supported
             'qt4': 'Qt4Agg',
             'inline' : 'module://IPython.zmq.pylab.backend_inline'}
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Main classes and functions
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 def find_gui_and_backend(gui=None):
     """Given a gui string return the gui and mpl backend.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     gui : str
         Can be one of ('tk','gtk','wx','qt','qt4','inline').
 
     Returns
     -------
     A tuple of (gui, backend) where backend is one of ('TkAgg','GTKAgg',
     'WXAgg','Qt4Agg','module://IPython.zmq.pylab.backend_inline').
     """
 
     import matplotlib
 
     if gui:
         # select backend based on requested gui
         backend = backends[gui]
     else:
         backend = matplotlib.rcParams['backend']
         # In this case, we need to find what the appropriate gui selection call
         # should be for IPython, so we can activate inputhook accordingly
         g2b = backends  # maps gui names to mpl backend names
         b2g = dict(zip(g2b.values(), g2b.keys()))  # reverse dict
         gui = b2g.get(backend, None)
     return gui, backend
 
 
 def activate_matplotlib(backend):
     """Activate the given backend and set interactive to True."""
 
     import matplotlib
     if backend.startswith('module://'):
         # Work around bug in matplotlib: matplotlib.use converts the
         # backend_id to lowercase even if a module name is specified!
         matplotlib.rcParams['backend'] = backend
     else:
         matplotlib.use(backend)
     matplotlib.interactive(True)
 
     # This must be imported last in the matplotlib series, after
     # backend/interactivity choices have been made
     import matplotlib.pylab as pylab
 
     # XXX For now leave this commented out, but depending on discussions with
     # mpl-dev, we may be able to allow interactive switching...
     #import matplotlib.pyplot
     #matplotlib.pyplot.switch_backend(backend)
 
     pylab.show._needmain = False
     # We need to detect at runtime whether show() is called by the user.
     # For this, we wrap it into a decorator which adds a 'called' flag.
     pylab.draw_if_interactive = flag_calls(pylab.draw_if_interactive)
 
 
 def import_pylab(user_ns, backend, import_all=True, shell=None):
     """Import the standard pylab symbols into user_ns."""
 
     # Import numpy as np/pyplot as plt are conventions we're trying to
     # somewhat standardize on.  Making them available to users by default
     # will greatly help this. 
     exec ("import numpy\n"
           "import matplotlib\n"
           "from matplotlib import pylab, mlab, pyplot\n"
           "np = numpy\n"
           "plt = pyplot\n"
           ) in user_ns
 
     if shell is not None:
         # If using our svg payload backend, register the post-execution
         # function that will pick up the results for display.  This can only be
         # done with access to the real shell object.
         if backend == backends['inline']:
-            from IPython.zmq.pylab.backend_inline import flush_svg
+            from IPython.zmq.pylab.backend_inline import flush_svg, figsize
+            from matplotlib import pyplot
             shell.register_post_execute(flush_svg)
+            # The typical default figure size is too large for inline use.  We
+            # might make this a user-configurable parameter later.
+            figsize(6.0, 4.0)
+            # Add 'figsize' to pyplot and to the user's namespace
+            user_ns['figsize'] = pyplot.figsize = figsize
         else:
             from IPython.zmq.pylab.backend_inline import pastefig
             from matplotlib import pyplot
             # Add 'paste' to pyplot and to the user's namespace
             user_ns['pastefig'] = pyplot.pastefig = pastefig
 
     if import_all:
         exec("from matplotlib.pylab import *\n"
              "from numpy import *\n") in user_ns
 
 
 def pylab_activate(user_ns, gui=None, import_all=True):
     """Activate pylab mode in the user's namespace.
 
     Loads and initializes numpy, matplotlib and friends for interactive use.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     user_ns : dict
       Namespace where the imports will occur.
 
     gui : optional, string
       A valid gui name following the conventions of the %gui magic.
 
     import_all : optional, boolean
       If true, an 'import *' is done from numpy and pylab.
 
     Returns
     -------
     The actual gui used (if not given as input, it was obtained from matplotlib
     itself, and will be needed next to configure IPython's gui integration.
     """
     gui, backend = find_gui_and_backend(gui)
     activate_matplotlib(backend)
     import_pylab(user_ns, backend)
 
     print """
 Welcome to pylab, a matplotlib-based Python environment [backend: %s].
 For more information, type 'help(pylab)'.""" % backend
     
     return gui
 
 # We need a little factory function here to create the closure where
 # safe_execfile can live.
 def mpl_runner(safe_execfile):
     """Factory to return a matplotlib-enabled runner for %run.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     safe_execfile : function
       This must be a function with the same interface as the
       :meth:`safe_execfile` method of IPython.
 
     Returns
     -------
     A function suitable for use as the ``runner`` argument of the %run magic
     function.
     """
     
     def mpl_execfile(fname,*where,**kw):
         """matplotlib-aware wrapper around safe_execfile.
 
         Its interface is identical to that of the :func:`execfile` builtin.
 
         This is ultimately a call to execfile(), but wrapped in safeties to
         properly handle interactive rendering."""
 
         import matplotlib
         import matplotlib.pylab as pylab
 
         #print '*** Matplotlib runner ***' # dbg
         # turn off rendering until end of script
         is_interactive = matplotlib.rcParams['interactive']
         matplotlib.interactive(False)
         safe_execfile(fname,*where,**kw)
         matplotlib.interactive(is_interactive)
         # make rendering call now, if the user tried to do it
         if pylab.draw_if_interactive.called:
             pylab.draw()
             pylab.draw_if_interactive.called = False
 
     return mpl_execfile
 

IPython/zmq/pylab/backend_inline.py

@@ -1,112 +1,119 b''
 """Produce SVG versions of active plots for display by the rich Qt frontend.
 """
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 # Standard library imports
 from cStringIO import StringIO
 
 # System library imports.
 import matplotlib
 from matplotlib.backends.backend_svg import new_figure_manager
 from matplotlib._pylab_helpers import Gcf
 
 # Local imports.
 from backend_payload import add_plot_payload
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Functions
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 def show(close=True):
     """Show all figures as SVG payloads sent to the IPython clients.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     close : bool, optional
       If true, a ``plt.close('all')`` call is automatically issued after
       sending all the SVG figures.
     """
     for figure_manager in Gcf.get_all_fig_managers():
         send_svg_canvas(figure_manager.canvas)
     if close:
         matplotlib.pyplot.close('all')
 
 # This flag will be reset by draw_if_interactive when called
 show._draw_called = False
 
 
+def figsize(sizex, sizey):
+    """Set the default figure size to be [sizex, sizey].
+
+    This is just an easy to remember, convenience wrapper that sets::
+
+      matplotlib.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [sizex, sizey]
+    """
+    matplotlib.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [sizex, sizey]
+    
+
 def pastefig(*figs):
     """Paste one or more figures into the console workspace.
 
     If no arguments are given, all available figures are pasted.  If the
     argument list contains references to invalid figures, a warning is printed
     but the function continues pasting further figures.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     figs : tuple
       A tuple that can contain any mixture of integers and figure objects.
     """
     if not figs:
         show(close=False)
     else:
         fig_managers = Gcf.get_all_fig_managers()
         fig_index = dict( [(fm.canvas.figure, fm.canvas) for fm in fig_managers]
            + [ (fm.canvas.figure.number, fm.canvas) for fm in fig_managers] )
 
         for fig in figs:
             canvas = fig_index.get(fig)
             if canvas is None:
                 print('Warning: figure %s not available.' % fig)
             else:
                 send_svg_canvas(canvas)
 
 
 def send_svg_canvas(canvas):
     """Draw the current canvas and send it as an SVG payload.
     """
-    # Make the background transparent.
-    # figure_manager.canvas.figure.patch.set_alpha(0.0)
-
     # Set the background to white instead so it looks good on black.  We store
     # the current values to restore them at the end.
     fc = canvas.figure.get_facecolor()
     ec = canvas.figure.get_edgecolor()
     canvas.figure.set_facecolor('white')
     canvas.figure.set_edgecolor('white')
     try:
         add_plot_payload('svg', svg_from_canvas(canvas))
     finally:
         canvas.figure.set_facecolor(fc)
         canvas.figure.set_edgecolor(ec)
 
 
 def svg_from_canvas(canvas):
     """ Return a string containing the SVG representation of a FigureCanvasSvg.
     """
     string_io = StringIO()
     canvas.print_svg(string_io)
     return string_io.getvalue()
 
 
 def draw_if_interactive():
     """
     Is called after every pylab drawing command
     """
     # We simply flag we were called and otherwise do nothing.  At the end of
     # the code execution, a separate call to show_close() will act upon this.
     show._draw_called = True
 
 
 def flush_svg():
     """Call show, close all open figures, sending all SVG images.
 
     This is meant to be called automatically and will call show() if, during
     prior code execution, there had been any calls to draw_if_interactive.
     """
     if show._draw_called:
         show(close=True)
         show._draw_called = False