Axis

Creating an Axis

The Axis is a 2D axis that works well with automatic layouts. Here's how you create one

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()

ax = Axis(f[1, 1], xlabel = "x label", ylabel = "y label",
    title = "Title")

f

Plotting into an Axis

You can use all the normal mutating 2D plotting functions with an Axis. These functions return the created plot object. Omitting the ax argument plots into the current_axis(), which is usually the axis that was last created.

lineobject = lines!(ax, 0..10, sin, color = :red)
scatobject = scatter!(0:0.5:10, cos, color = :orange)

f

Deleting plots

You can delete a plot object directly via delete!(ax, plotobj). You can also remove all plots with empty!(ax).

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

axs = [Axis(f[1, i]) for i in 1:3]

scatters = map(axs) do ax
    [scatter!(ax, 0:0.1:10, x -> sin(x) + i) for i in 1:3]
end

delete!(axs[2], scatters[2][2])
empty!(axs[3])

f

Hiding Axis spines and decorations

You can hide all axis elements manually, by setting their specific visibility attributes to false, like xticklabelsvisible, but that can be tedious. There are a couple of convenience functions for this.

To hide spines, you can use hidespines!.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], title = "Axis 1")
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], title = "Axis 2")

hidespines!(ax1)
hidespines!(ax2, :t, :r) # only top and right

f

To hide decorations, you can use hidedecorations!, or the specific hidexdecorations! and hideydecorations!. When hiding, you can set label = false, ticklabels = false, ticks = false, grid = false, minorgrid = false or minorticks = false as keyword arguments if you want to keep those elements. It's common, e.g., to hide everything but the grid lines in facet plots.

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], title = "Axis 1")
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], title = "Axis 2")
ax3 = Axis(f[1, 3], title = "Axis 3")

hidedecorations!(ax1)
hidexdecorations!(ax2, grid = false)
hideydecorations!(ax3, ticks = false)

f

Linking axes

You can link axes to each other. Every axis simply keeps track of a list of other axes which it updates when it is changed itself. You can link x and y dimensions separately.

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1])
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2])
ax3 = Axis(f[2, 2])

linkyaxes!(ax1, ax2)
linkxaxes!(ax2, ax3)

ax1.title = "y linked"
ax2.title = "x & y linked"
ax3.title = "x linked"

for (i, ax) in enumerate([ax1, ax2, ax3])
    lines!(ax, 1:10, 1:10, color = "green")
    if i != 1
        lines!(ax, 11:20, 1:10, color = "red")
    end
    if i != 3
        lines!(ax, 1:10, 11:20, color = "blue")
    end
end

f

Aligning neighboring axis labels

When placing axes with different ticks next to each other it can be desirable to visually align the labels of these axes. By default, the space allocated for the ticklabels is minimized. This value can be fixed by using the functions tight_xticklabel_spacing!, tight_yticklabel_spacing! or tight_ticklabel_spacing! for both.

Note how x and y labels are misaligned in this figure due to different tick label lengths.

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], title = "Axis 1", ylabel = "y label", ytickformat = "{:.3f}")
ax2 = Axis(f[2, 1], title = "Axis 2", ylabel = "y label", xlabel = "x label")
ax3 = Axis(f[2, 2], title = "Axis 3", xlabel = "x label", xtickformat = "{:.3f}", xticklabelrotation = pi/4)

f

To align the labels, we can set the xticklabelspace or yticklabelspace attributes of the linked axes to the maximum space.

yspace = maximum(tight_yticklabel_spacing!, [ax1, ax2])
xspace = maximum(tight_xticklabel_spacing!, [ax2, ax3])

ax1.yticklabelspace = yspace
ax2.yticklabelspace = yspace

ax2.xticklabelspace = xspace
ax3.xticklabelspace = xspace

f

Creating a twin axis

There is currently no dedicated function to do this, but you can simply add an Axis on top of another, then hide everything but the second axis.

Here's an example how to do this with a second y axis on the right.

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], yticklabelcolor = :blue)
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 1], yticklabelcolor = :red, yaxisposition = :right)
hidespines!(ax2)
hidexdecorations!(ax2)

lines!(ax1, 0..10, sin, color = :blue)
lines!(ax2, 0..10, x -> 100 * cos(x), color = :red)

f

Axis interaction

An Axis has a couple of predefined interactions enabled.

Scroll zoom

You can zoom in an axis by scrolling in and out. If you press x or y while scrolling, the zoom movement is restricted to that dimension. These keys can be changed with the attributes xzoomkey and yzoomkey. You can also restrict the zoom dimensions all the time by setting the axis attributes xzoomlock or yzoomlock to true.

Drag pan

You can pan around the axis by right-clicking and dragging. If you press x or y while panning, the pan movement is restricted to that dimension. These keys can be changed with the attributes xpankey and ypankey. You can also restrict the pan dimensions all the time by setting the axis attributes xpanlock or ypanlock to true.

Limit reset

You can reset the limits with ctrl + leftclick. This is the same as doing reset_limits!(ax). This sets the limits back to the values stored in ax.limits, and if they are nothing, computes them automatically. If you have previously called limits!, xlims! or ylims!, these settings therefore stay intact when doing a limit reset.

You can alternatively press ctrl + shift + leftclick, which is the same as calling autolimits!(ax). This function ignores previously set limits and computes them all anew given the axis content.

Rectangle selection zoom

Left-click and drag zooms into the selected rectangular area. If you press x or y while panning, only the respective dimension is affected. You can also restrict the selection zoom dimensions all the time by setting the axis attributes xrectzoom or yrectzoom to true.

Custom interactions

The interaction system is an additional abstraction upon Makie's low-level event system to make it easier to quickly create your own interaction patterns.

Registering and deregistering interactions

To register a new interaction, call register_interaction!(ax, name::Symbol, interaction). The interaction argument can be of any type.

To remove an existing interaction completely, call deregister_interaction!(ax, name::Symbol). You can check which interactions are currently active by calling interactions(ax). The default interactions are :dragpan, :limitreset, :rectanglezoom and :scrollzoom.

Activating and deactivating interactions

Often, you don't want to remove an interaction entirely but only disable it for a moment, then re-enable it again. You can use the functions activate_interaction!(ax, name::Symbol) and deactivate_interaction!(ax, name::Symbol) for that.

Function interaction

If interaction is a Function, it should accept two arguments, which correspond to an event and the axis. This function will then be called whenever the axis generates an event.

Here's an example of such a function. Note that we use the special dispatch signature for Functions that allows to use the do-syntax:

register_interaction!(ax, :my_interaction) do event::MouseEvent, axis
    if event.type === MouseEventTypes.leftclick
        println("You clicked on the axis!")
    end
end

As you can see, it's possible to restrict the type parameter of the event argument. Choices are one of MouseEvent, KeysEvent or ScrollEvent if you only want to handle a specific class. Your function can also have multiple methods dealing with each type.

Custom object interaction

The function option is most suitable for interactions that don't involve much state. A more verbose but flexible option is available. For this, you define a new type which typically holds all the state variables you're interested in.

Whenever the axis generates an event, it calls process_interaction(interaction, event, axis) on all stored interactions. By defining process_interaction for specific types of interaction and event, you can create more complex interaction patterns.

Here's an example with simple state handling where we allow left clicks while l is pressed, and right clicks while r is pressed:

mutable struct MyInteraction
    allow_left_click::Bool
    allow_right_click::Bool
end

function Makie.process_interaction(interaction::MyInteraction, event::MouseEvent, axis)
    if interaction.allow_left_click && event.type === MouseEventTypes.leftclick
        println("Left click in correct mode")
    end
    if interaction.allow_right_click && event.type === MouseEventTypes.rightclick
        println("Right click in correct mode")
    end
end

function Makie.process_interaction(interaction::MyInteraction, event::KeysEvent, axis)
    interaction.allow_left_click = Keyboard.l in event.keys
    interaction.allow_right_click = Keyboard.r in event.keys
end

register_interaction!(ax, :left_and_right, MyInteraction(false, false))

Setup and cleanup

Some interactions might have more complex state involving plot objects that need to be setup or removed. For those purposes, you can overload the methods registration_setup!(parent, interaction) and deregistration_cleanup!(parent, interaction) which are called during registration and deregistration, respectively.

Attributes

alignmode

Defaults to Inside()

The align mode of the axis in its parent GridLayout.

aspect

Defaults to nothing

Controls the forced aspect ratio of the axis.

The default nothing will not constrain the aspect ratio. The axis area will span the available width and height in the layout.

DataAspect() reduces the effective axis size within the available layout space so that the axis aspect ratio width/height matches that of the data limits. For example, if the x limits range from 0 to 300 and the y limits from 100 to 250, DataAspect() will result in an aspect ratio of (300 - 0) / (250 - 100) = 2. This can be useful when plotting images, because the image will be displayed unsquished.

AxisAspect(ratio) reduces the effective axis size within the available layout space so that the axis aspect ratio width/height matches ratio.

Note that both DataAspect and AxisAspect can result in excess whitespace around the axis. To make a GridLayout aware of aspect ratio constraints, refer to the Aspect column or row size setting.

using CairoMakie
using FileIO

f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], aspect = nothing, title = "nothing")
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], aspect = DataAspect(), title = "DataAspect()")
ax3 = Axis(f[2, 1], aspect = AxisAspect(1), title = "AxisAspect(1)")
ax4 = Axis(f[2, 2], aspect = AxisAspect(2), title = "AxisAspect(2)")

img = rotr90(load(assetpath("cow.png")))
for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4]
    image!(ax, img)
end

f

autolimitaspect

Defaults to nothing

If autolimitaspect is set to a number, the limits of the axis will autoadjust such that the ratio of the limits to the axis size equals that number.

For example, if the axis size is 100 x 200, then with autolimitaspect = 1, the autolimits will also have a ratio of 1 to 2. The setting autolimitaspect = 1 is the complement to aspect = AxisAspect(1), but while aspect changes the axis size, autolimitaspect changes the limits to achieve the desired ratio.

Warning

autolimitaspect can introduce cyclical updates which result in stack overflow errors. This happens when the expanded limits have different ticks than the unexpanded ones. The difference in size causes a relayout which might again result in different autolimits to match the new aspect ratio, new ticks and again a relayout.

You can hide the ticklabels or fix xticklabelspace and yticklabelspace to avoid the relayouts. You can choose the amount of space manually or pick the current automatic one with tight_ticklabel_spacing!.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], autolimitaspect = nothing)
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], autolimitaspect = 1)

for ax in [ax1, ax2]
    lines!(ax, 0..10, sin)
end

f

backgroundcolor

Defaults to :white

The background color of the axis.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1])
    ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], backgroundcolor = :gray80)

    f

bottomspinecolor

Defaults to :black

The color of the bottom axis spine.

bottomspinevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the bottom axis spine is visible.

dim1_conversion

Defaults to nothing

Global state for the x dimension conversion.

dim2_conversion

Defaults to nothing

Global state for the y dimension conversion.

flip_ylabel

Defaults to false

Controls if the ylabel's rotation is flipped.

halign

Defaults to :center

The horizontal alignment of the axis within its suggested bounding box.

height

Defaults to nothing

The height of the axis.

leftspinecolor

Defaults to :black

The color of the left axis spine.

leftspinevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the left axis spine is visible.

limits

Defaults to (nothing, nothing)

Can be used to manually specify which axis limits are desired.

The limits attribute cannot be used to read out the actual limits of the axis. The value of limits does not change when interactively zooming and panning and the axis can be reset accordingly using the function reset_limits!.

The function autolimits! resets the value of limits to (nothing, nothing) and adjusts the axis limits according to the extents of the plots added to the axis.

The value of limits can be a four-element tuple (xlow, xhigh, ylow, yhigh) where each value can be a real number or nothing. It can also be a tuple (x, y) where x and y can be nothing or a tuple (low, high). In all cases, nothing means that the respective limit values will be automatically determined.

Automatically determined limits are also influenced by xautolimitmargin and yautolimitmargin.

The convenience functions xlims! and ylims! allow to set only the x or y part of limits. The function limits! is another option to set both x and y simultaneously.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], limits = (nothing, nothing), title = "(nothing, nothing)")
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], limits = (0, 4pi, -1, 1), title = "(0, 4pi, -1, 1)")
ax3 = Axis(f[2, 1], limits = ((0, 4pi), nothing), title = "((0, 4pi), nothing)")
ax4 = Axis(f[2, 2], limits = (nothing, 4pi, nothing, 1), title = "(nothing, 4pi, nothing, 1)")

for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4]
    lines!(ax, 0..4pi, sin)
end

f

panbutton

Defaults to Makie.Mouse.right

The button for panning.

rightspinecolor

Defaults to :black

The color of the right axis spine.

rightspinevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the right axis spine is visible.

spinewidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the axis spines.

subtitle

Defaults to ""

The content of the axis subtitle. The value can be any non-vector-valued object that the text primitive supports.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], title = "Title", subtitle = "Subtitle")
Axis(f[2, 1], title = "Title", subtitle = L"\sum_i{x_i \times y_i}")
Axis(f[3, 1], title = "Title", subtitle = rich(
    "Rich text subtitle",
    subscript(" with subscript", color = :slategray)
))

f

subtitlecolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of the subtitle

subtitlefont

Defaults to :regular

The font family of the subtitle.

subtitlegap

Defaults to 0

The gap between subtitle and title.

subtitlelineheight

Defaults to 1

The axis subtitle line height multiplier.

subtitlesize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The subtitle's font size.

subtitlevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the subtitle is visible.

tellheight

Defaults to true

Controls if the parent layout can adjust to this element's height

tellwidth

Defaults to true

Controls if the parent layout can adjust to this element's width

title

Defaults to ""

The content of the axis title. The value can be any non-vector-valued object that the text primitive supports.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], title = "Title")
Axis(f[2, 1], title = L"\sum_i{x_i \times y_i}")
Axis(f[3, 1], title = rich(
    "Rich text title",
    subscript(" with subscript", color = :slategray)
))

f

titlealign

Defaults to :center

The horizontal alignment of the title. The subtitle always follows this alignment setting.

Options are :center, :left or :right.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], titlealign = :left, title = "Left aligned title")
Axis(f[2, 1], titlealign = :center, title = "Center aligned title")
Axis(f[3, 1], titlealign = :right, title = "Right aligned title")

f

titlecolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of the title

titlefont

Defaults to :bold

The font family of the title.

titlegap

Defaults to 4.0

The gap between axis and title.

titlelineheight

Defaults to 1

The axis title line height multiplier.

titlesize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The title's font size.

titlevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the title is visible.

topspinecolor

Defaults to :black

The color of the top axis spine.

topspinevisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the top axis spine is visible.

valign

Defaults to :center

The vertical alignment of the axis within its suggested bounding box.

width

Defaults to nothing

The width of the axis.

xautolimitmargin

Defaults to (0.05f0, 0.05f0)

The relative margins added to the autolimits in x direction.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    data = 0:1

    ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], xautolimitmargin = (0, 0), title = "xautolimitmargin = (0, 0)")
    ax2 = Axis(f[2, 1], xautolimitmargin = (0.05, 0.05), title = "xautolimitmargin = (0.05, 0.05)")
    ax3 = Axis(f[3, 1], xautolimitmargin = (0, 0.2), title = "xautolimitmargin = (0, 0.2)")

    for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3]
        lines!(ax, data)
    end

    f

xaxisposition

Defaults to :bottom

The position of the x axis (:bottom or :top).

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], xaxisposition = :bottom)
Axis(f[1, 2], xaxisposition = :top)

f

xgridcolor

Defaults to RGBAf(0, 0, 0, 0.12)

The color of the x grid lines.

xgridstyle

Defaults to nothing

The linestyle of the x grid lines.

xgridvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the x grid lines are visible.

xgridwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the x grid lines.

xlabel

Defaults to ""

The content of the x axis label. The value can be any non-vector-valued object that the text primitive supports.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], xlabel = "X Label")
Axis(f[2, 1], xlabel = L"\sum_i{x_i \times y_i}")
Axis(f[3, 1], xlabel = rich(
    "X Label",
    subscript(" with subscript", color = :slategray)
))

f

xlabelcolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of the xlabel.

xlabelfont

Defaults to :regular

The font family of the xlabel.

xlabelpadding

Defaults to 3.0

The additional padding between the xlabel and the ticks or axis.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], xlabel = "X Label", xlabelpadding = 0, title = "xlabelpadding = 0")
    Axis(f[1, 2], xlabel = "X Label", xlabelpadding = 5, title = "xlabelpadding = 5")
    Axis(f[1, 3], xlabel = "X Label", xlabelpadding = 10, title = "xlabelpadding = 10")

    f

xlabelrotation

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The xlabel rotation in radians.

xlabelsize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The font size of the xlabel.

xlabelvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the xlabel is visible.

xminorgridcolor

Defaults to RGBAf(0, 0, 0, 0.05)

The color of the x minor grid lines.

xminorgridstyle

Defaults to nothing

The linestyle of the x minor grid lines.

xminorgridvisible

Defaults to false

Controls if the x minor grid lines are visible.

xminorgridwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the x minor grid lines.

xminortickalign

Defaults to 0.0

The alignment of x minor ticks on the axis spine

xminortickcolor

Defaults to :black

The tick color of x minor ticks

xminorticks

Defaults to IntervalsBetween(2)

The tick locator for the minor ticks of the x axis.

Common objects that can be used are:

• IntervalsBetween, divides the space between two adjacent major ticks into n intervals for n-1 minor ticks

• A vector of numbers

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

kwargs = (; xminorticksvisible = true, xminorgridvisible = true)
Axis(f[1, 1]; xminorticks = IntervalsBetween(2), kwargs...)
Axis(f[2, 1]; xminorticks = IntervalsBetween(5), kwargs...)
Axis(f[3, 1]; xminorticks = [1, 2, 3, 4], kwargs...)

f

xminorticksize

Defaults to 3.0

The tick size of x minor ticks

xminorticksvisible

Defaults to false

Controls if minor ticks on the x axis are visible

xminortickwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The tick width of x minor ticks

xpankey

Defaults to Makie.Keyboard.x

The key for limiting panning to the x direction.

xpanlock

Defaults to false

Locks interactive panning in the x direction.

xrectzoom

Defaults to true

Controls if rectangle zooming affects the x dimension.

xreversed

Defaults to false

Controls if the x axis goes rightwards (false) or leftwards (true)

xscale

Defaults to identity

The scaling function for the x axis.

Can be any invertible function, some predefined options are identity, log, log2, log10, sqrt, logit, Makie.pseudolog10, Makie.Symlog10, Makie.AsinhScale, Makie.SinhScale, Makie.LogScale, Makie.LuptonAsinhScale, and Makie.PowerScale. To use a custom function, you have to define appropriate methods for Makie.inverse_transform, Makie.defaultlimits and Makie.defined_interval.

If the scaling function is only defined over a limited interval, no plot object may have a source datum that lies outside of that range. For example, there may be no x value lower than or equal to 0 when log is selected for xscale. What matters are the source data, not the user-selected limits, because all data have to be transformed, irrespective of whether they lie inside or outside of the current limits.

The axis scale may affect tick finding and formatting, depending on the values of xticks and xtickformat.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

for (i, scale) in enumerate([identity, log10, log2, log, sqrt, Makie.logit])
    row, col = fldmod1(i, 2)
    Axis(f[row, col], xscale = scale, title = string(scale),
        xminorticksvisible = true, xminorgridvisible = true,
        xminorticks = IntervalsBetween(5))

    lines!(range(0.01, 0.99, length = 200), 1:200)
end

f

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1],
    xscale = Makie.pseudolog10,
    title = "Pseudolog scale",
    xticks = [-100, -10, -1, 0, 1, 10, 100]
)

ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2],
    xscale = Makie.Symlog10(10.0),
    title = "Symlog10 with linear scaling
between -10 and 10",
    xticks = [-100, -10, 0, 10, 100]
)

for ax in [ax1, ax2]
    lines!(ax, -100:0.1:100, -100:0.1:100)
end

f

xtickalign

Defaults to 0.0

The alignment of the xtick marks relative to the axis spine (0 = out, 1 = in).

xtickcolor

Defaults to RGBf(0, 0, 0)

The color of the xtick marks.

xtickformat

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The formatter for the ticks on the x axis.

Usually, the tick values are determined first using Makie.get_tickvalues, after which Makie.get_ticklabels(xtickformat, xtickvalues) is called. If there is a special method defined, tick values and labels can be determined together using Makie.get_ticks instead. Check the docstring for xticks for more information.

The following is a list of common tick formatter objects.

Numeric:

• A Function that takes a vector of numbers and returns a vector of labels. A label can be anything that can be plotted by the text primitive.

• A String which is used as a format specifier for Format.jl. For example, "{:.2f}kg" formats numbers rounded to 2 decimal digits and with the suffix kg.

DateTime:

• A Function that takes a vector of datetimes and returns a vector of labels. A label can be anything that can be plotted by the text primitive.

• A String which is used to construct a Dates.DateFormat object for use with Dates.format. For example, "dd.mm.yyyy".

• A Dates.DateFormat object which is used with Dates.format like the String option.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure(figure_padding = 50)

Axis(f[1, 1], xtickformat = values -> ["$(value)kg" for value in values])
Axis(f[2, 1], xtickformat = "{:.2f}ms")
Axis(f[3, 1], xtickformat = values -> [L"\sqrt{%$(value^2)}" for value in values])
Axis(f[4, 1], xtickformat = values -> [rich("$value", superscript("XY", color = :red))
                                       for value in values])

f

xticklabelalign

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The horizontal and vertical alignment of the xticklabels.

xticklabelcolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of xticklabels.

xticklabelfont

Defaults to :regular

The font family of the xticklabels.

xticklabelpad

Defaults to 2.0

The space between xticks and xticklabels.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], xticklabelpad = 0, title = "xticklabelpad = 0")
    Axis(f[1, 2], xticklabelpad = 5, title = "xticklabelpad = 5")
    Axis(f[1, 3], xticklabelpad = 15, title = "xticklabelpad = 15")

    f

xticklabelrotation

Defaults to 0.0

The counterclockwise rotation of the xticklabels in radians.

xticklabelsize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The font size of the xticklabels.

xticklabelspace

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The space reserved for the xticklabels. Can be set to Makie.automatic to automatically determine the space needed, :max_auto to only ever grow to fit the current ticklabels, or a specific value.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], xlabel = "X Label", xticklabelspace = 0.0, title = "xticklabelspace = 0.0")
    Axis(f[1, 2], xlabel = "X Label", xticklabelspace = 30.0, title = "xticklabelspace = 30.0")
    Axis(f[1, 3], xlabel = "X Label", xticklabelspace = Makie.automatic, title = "xticklabelspace = automatic")

    f

xticklabelsvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the xticklabels are visible.

xticks

Defaults to Makie.automatic

Controls what numerical tick values are calculated for the x axis.

To determine tick values and labels, Makie first calls Makie.get_ticks(xticks, xscale, xtickformat, xmin, xmax). If there is no special method defined for the current combination of ticks, scale and formatter which returns both tick values and labels at once, then the numerical tick values will be determined using xtickvalues = Makie.get_tickvalues(xticks, xscale, xmin, xmax) after which the labels are determined using Makie.get_ticklabels(xtickformat, xtickvalues).

The following is a list of common tick objects.

Numeric:

• A vector of numbers

• A tuple with two vectors (numbers, labels) where labels can be any objects that text can handle.

• WilkinsonTicks, the default tick finder for linear ticks

• LinearTicks, an alternative tick finder for linear ticks

• LogTicks, a wrapper that applies any other wrapped tick finder on log-transformed values

• MultiplesTicks, for finding ticks at multiples of a given value, such as π

• AngularTicks, for finding tick steps that are fitting for angles with base 12 numbering (90° instead of 100)

DateTime:

• A vector of DateTimes

• A tuple with two vectors (datetimes, labels)

• DateTimeTicks, the default tick finder for datetime ticks

using CairoMakie
fig = Figure()
Axis(fig[1, 1], xticks = 1:10)
Axis(fig[2, 1], xticks = (1:2:9, ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E"]))
Axis(fig[3, 1], xticks = WilkinsonTicks(5))
fig

xticksize

Defaults to 5.0

The size of the xtick marks.

xticksmirrored

Defaults to false

Controls if the x ticks and minor ticks are mirrored on the other side of the Axis.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], xticksmirrored = false, xminorticksvisible = true)
Axis(f[1, 2], xticksmirrored = true, xminorticksvisible = true)

f

xticksvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the xtick marks are visible.

xtickwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the xtick marks.

xtrimspine

Defaults to false

If true, limits the x axis spine's extent to the outermost major tick marks. Can also be set to a Tuple{Bool,Bool} to control each side separately.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], xtrimspine = false)
ax2 = Axis(f[2, 1], xtrimspine = true)
ax3 = Axis(f[3, 1], xtrimspine = (true, false))
ax4 = Axis(f[4, 1], xtrimspine = (false, true))

for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4]
    ax.xgridvisible = false
    ax.ygridvisible = false
    ax.rightspinevisible = false
    ax.topspinevisible = false
    xlims!(ax, 0.5, 5.5)
end

f

xzoomkey

Defaults to Makie.Keyboard.x

The key for limiting zooming to the x direction.

xzoomlock

Defaults to false

Locks interactive zooming in the x direction.

yautolimitmargin

Defaults to (0.05f0, 0.05f0)

The relative margins added to the autolimits in y direction.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    data = 0:1

    ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], yautolimitmargin = (0, 0), title = "yautolimitmargin = (0, 0)")
    ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], yautolimitmargin = (0.05, 0.05), title = "yautolimitmargin = (0.05, 0.05)")
    ax3 = Axis(f[1, 3], yautolimitmargin = (0, 0.2), title = "yautolimitmargin = (0, 0.2)")

    for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3]
        lines!(ax, data)
    end

    f

yaxisposition

Defaults to :left

The position of the y axis (:left or :right).

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], yaxisposition = :left)
Axis(f[2, 1], yaxisposition = :right)

f

ygridcolor

Defaults to RGBAf(0, 0, 0, 0.12)

The color of the y grid lines.

ygridstyle

Defaults to nothing

The linestyle of the y grid lines.

ygridvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the y grid lines are visible.

ygridwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the y grid lines.

ylabel

Defaults to ""

The content of the y axis label. The value can be any non-vector-valued object that the text primitive supports.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], ylabel = "Y Label")
Axis(f[2, 1], ylabel = L"\sum_i{x_i \times y_i}")
Axis(f[3, 1], ylabel = rich(
    "Y Label",
    subscript(" with subscript", color = :slategray)
))

f

ylabelcolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of the ylabel.

ylabelfont

Defaults to :regular

The font family of the ylabel.

ylabelpadding

Defaults to 5.0

The additional padding between the ylabel and the ticks or axis.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", ylabelpadding = 0, title = "ylabelpadding = 0")
    Axis(f[2, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", ylabelpadding = 5, title = "ylabelpadding = 5")
    Axis(f[3, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", ylabelpadding = 10, title = "ylabelpadding = 10")

    f

ylabelrotation

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The ylabel rotation in radians.

ylabelsize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The font size of the ylabel.

ylabelvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the ylabel is visible.

yminorgridcolor

Defaults to RGBAf(0, 0, 0, 0.05)

The color of the y minor grid lines.

yminorgridstyle

Defaults to nothing

The linestyle of the y minor grid lines.

yminorgridvisible

Defaults to false

Controls if the y minor grid lines are visible.

yminorgridwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the y minor grid lines.

yminortickalign

Defaults to 0.0

The alignment of y minor ticks on the axis spine

yminortickcolor

Defaults to :black

The tick color of y minor ticks

yminorticks

Defaults to IntervalsBetween(2)

The tick locator for the minor ticks of the y axis.

Common objects that can be used are:

• IntervalsBetween, divides the space between two adjacent major ticks into n intervals for n-1 minor ticks

• A vector of numbers

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

kwargs = (; yminorticksvisible = true, yminorgridvisible = true)
Axis(f[1, 1]; yminorticks = IntervalsBetween(2), kwargs...)
Axis(f[1, 2]; yminorticks = IntervalsBetween(5), kwargs...)
Axis(f[1, 3]; yminorticks = [1, 2, 3, 4], kwargs...)

f

yminorticksize

Defaults to 3.0

The tick size of y minor ticks

yminorticksvisible

Defaults to false

Controls if minor ticks on the y axis are visible

yminortickwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The tick width of y minor ticks

ypankey

Defaults to Makie.Keyboard.y

The key for limiting panning to the y direction.

ypanlock

Defaults to false

Locks interactive panning in the y direction.

yrectzoom

Defaults to true

Controls if rectangle zooming affects the y dimension.

yreversed

Defaults to false

Controls if the y axis goes upwards (false) or downwards (true)

yscale

Defaults to identity

The scaling function for the y axis.

Can be any invertible function, some predefined options are identity, log, log2, log10, sqrt, logit, Makie.pseudolog10, Makie.Symlog10, Makie.AsinhScale, Makie.SinhScale, Makie.LogScale, Makie.LuptonAsinhScale, and Makie.PowerScale. To use a custom function, you have to define appropriate methods for Makie.inverse_transform, Makie.defaultlimits and Makie.defined_interval.

If the scaling function is only defined over a limited interval, no plot object may have a source datum that lies outside of that range. For example, there may be no y value lower than or equal to 0 when log is selected for yscale. What matters are the source data, not the user-selected limits, because all data have to be transformed, irrespective of whether they lie inside or outside of the current limits.

The axis scale may affect tick finding and formatting, depending on the values of yticks and ytickformat.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

for (i, scale) in enumerate([identity, log10, log2, log, sqrt, Makie.logit])
    row, col = fldmod1(i, 3)
    Axis(f[row, col], yscale = scale, title = string(scale),
        yminorticksvisible = true, yminorgridvisible = true,
        yminorticks = IntervalsBetween(5))

    lines!(range(0.01, 0.99, length = 200))
end

f

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1],
    yscale = Makie.pseudolog10,
    title = "Pseudolog scale",
    yticks = [-100, -10, -1, 0, 1, 10, 100]
)

ax2 = Axis(f[2, 1],
    yscale = Makie.Symlog10(10.0),
    title = "Symlog10 with linear scaling between -10 and 10",
    yticks = [-100, -10, 0, 10, 100]
)

for ax in [ax1, ax2]
    lines!(ax, -100:0.1:100)
end

f

ytickalign

Defaults to 0.0

The alignment of the ytick marks relative to the axis spine (0 = out, 1 = in).

ytickcolor

Defaults to RGBf(0, 0, 0)

The color of the ytick marks.

ytickformat

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The formatter for the ticks on the y axis.

Usually, the tick values are determined first using Makie.get_tickvalues, after which Makie.get_ticklabels(ytickformat, ytickvalues) is called. If there is a special method defined, tick values and labels can be determined together using Makie.get_ticks instead. Check the docstring for yticks for more information.

The following is a list of common tick formatter objects.

Numeric:

• A Function that takes a vector of numbers and returns a vector of labels. A label can be anything that can be plotted by the text primitive.

• A String which is used as a format specifier for Format.jl. For example, "{:.2f}kg" formats numbers rounded to 2 decimal digits and with the suffix kg.

DateTime:

• A Function that takes a vector of datetimes and returns a vector of labels. A label can be anything that can be plotted by the text primitive.

• A String which is used to construct a Dates.DateFormat object for use with Dates.format. For example, "dd.mm.yyyy".

• A Dates.DateFormat object which is used with Dates.format like the String option.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], ytickformat = values -> ["$(value)kg" for value in values])
Axis(f[1, 2], ytickformat = "{:.2f}ms")
Axis(f[1, 3], ytickformat = values -> [L"\sqrt{%$(value^2)}" for value in values])
Axis(f[1, 4], ytickformat = values -> [rich("$value", superscript("XY", color = :red))
                                       for value in values])

f

yticklabelalign

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The horizontal and vertical alignment of the yticklabels.

yticklabelcolor

Defaults to @inherit :textcolor :black

The color of yticklabels.

yticklabelfont

Defaults to :regular

The font family of the yticklabels.

yticklabelpad

Defaults to 4.0

The space between yticks and yticklabels.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], yticklabelpad = 0, title = "yticklabelpad = 0")
    Axis(f[2, 1], yticklabelpad = 5, title = "yticklabelpad = 5")
    Axis(f[3, 1], yticklabelpad = 15, title = "yticklabelpad = 15")

    f

yticklabelrotation

Defaults to 0.0

The counterclockwise rotation of the yticklabels in radians.

yticklabelsize

Defaults to @inherit :fontsize 16.0f0

The font size of the yticklabels.

yticklabelspace

Defaults to Makie.automatic

The space reserved for the yticklabels. Can be set to Makie.automatic to automatically determine the space needed, :max_auto to only ever grow to fit the current ticklabels, or a specific value.

using CairoMakie
    f = Figure()

    Axis(f[1, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", yticklabelspace = 0.0, title = "yticklabelspace = 0.0")
    Axis(f[2, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", yticklabelspace = 30.0, title = "yticklabelspace = 30.0")
    Axis(f[3, 1], ylabel = "Y Label", yticklabelspace = Makie.automatic, title = "yticklabelspace = automatic")

    f

yticklabelsvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the yticklabels are visible.

yticks

Defaults to Makie.automatic

Controls what numerical tick values are calculated for the y axis.

To determine tick values and labels, Makie first calls Makie.get_ticks(yticks, yscale, ytickformat, ymin, ymax). If there is no special method defined for the current combination of ticks, scale and formatter which returns both tick values and labels at once, then the numerical tick values will be determined using ytickvalues = Makie.get_tickvalues(yticks, yscale, ymin, ymax) after which the labels are determined using Makie.get_ticklabels(ytickformat, ytickvalues).

The following is a list of common tick objects.

Numeric:

• A vector of numbers

• A tuple with two vectors (numbers, labels) where labels can be any objects that text can handle.

• WilkinsonTicks, the default tick finder for linear ticks

• LinearTicks, an alternative tick finder for linear ticks

• LogTicks, a wrapper that applies any other wrapped tick finder on log-transformed values

• MultiplesTicks, for finding ticks at multiples of a given value, such as π

• AngularTicks, for finding tick steps that are fitting for angles with base 12 numbering (90° instead of 100)

DateTime:

• A vector of DateTimes

• A tuple with two vectors (datetimes, labels)

• DateTimeTicks, the default tick finder for datetime ticks

using CairoMakie
fig = Figure()
Axis(fig[1, 1], yticks = 1:10)
Axis(fig[1, 2], yticks = (1:2:9, ["A", "B", "C", "D", "E"]))
Axis(fig[1, 3], yticks = WilkinsonTicks(5))
fig

yticksize

Defaults to 5.0

The size of the ytick marks.

yticksmirrored

Defaults to false

Controls if the y ticks and minor ticks are mirrored on the other side of the Axis.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

Axis(f[1, 1], yticksmirrored = false, yminorticksvisible = true)
Axis(f[2, 1], yticksmirrored = true, yminorticksvisible = true)

f

yticksvisible

Defaults to true

Controls if the ytick marks are visible.

ytickwidth

Defaults to 1.0

The width of the ytick marks.

ytrimspine

Defaults to false

If true, limits the y axis spine's extent to the outermost major tick marks. Can also be set to a Tuple{Bool,Bool} to control each side separately.

using CairoMakie
f = Figure()

ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1], ytrimspine = false)
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2], ytrimspine = true)
ax3 = Axis(f[1, 3], ytrimspine = (true, false))
ax4 = Axis(f[1, 4], ytrimspine = (false, true))

for ax in [ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4]
    ax.xgridvisible = false
    ax.ygridvisible = false
    ax.rightspinevisible = false
    ax.topspinevisible = false
    ylims!(ax, 0.5, 5.5)
end

f

yzoomkey

Defaults to Makie.Keyboard.y

The key for limiting zooming to the y direction.

yzoomlock

Defaults to false

Locks interactive zooming in the y direction.

zoombutton

Defaults to true

Button that needs to be pressed to allow scroll zooming.