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
Setting Axis limits and reversing axes
You can set axis limits with the functions
xlims!
,
ylims!
or
limits!
. The numbers are meant in the order left right for
xlims!
, and bottom top for
ylims!
. Therefore, if the second number is smaller than the first, the respective axis will reverse. You can manually reverse an axis by setting
ax.xreversed = true
or
ax.yreversed = true
.
Note that if you enforce an aspect ratio between x-axis and y-axis using
autolimitaspect
, the values you set with these functions will probably not be exactly what you get, but they will be changed to fit the chosen ratio.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure()
axes = [Axis(f[i, j]) for j in 1:3, i in 1:2]
for (i, ax) in enumerate(axes)
ax.title = "Axis $i"
poly!(ax, Point2f[(9, 9), (3, 1), (1, 3)],
color = cgrad(:inferno, 6, categorical = true)[i])
end
xlims!(axes[1], [0, 10]) # as vector
xlims!(axes[2], 10, 0) # separate, reversed
ylims!(axes[3], 0, 10) # separate
ylims!(axes[4], (10, 0)) # as tuple, reversed
limits!(axes[5], 0, 10, 0, 10) # x1, x2, y1, y2
limits!(axes[6], BBox(0, 10, 0, 10)) # as rectangle
f
Setting half-automatic limits
You can set half limits by either giving one argument as
nothing
or by using the keyword syntax where only
low
or
high
is given.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure()
data = rand(100, 2) .* 0.7 .+ 0.15
Axis(f[1, 1], title = "xlims!(nothing, 1)")
scatter!(data)
xlims!(nothing, 1)
Axis(f[1, 2], title = "xlims!(low = 0)")
scatter!(data)
xlims!(low = 0)
Axis(f[2, 1], title = "ylims!(0, nothing)")
scatter!(data)
ylims!(0, nothing)
Axis(f[2, 2], title = "ylims!(high = 1)")
scatter!(data)
ylims!(high = 1)
f
This also works when specifying limits directly, such as
Axis(..., limits = (nothing, 1, 2, nothing))
.
Auto-reset behavior
When you create a new plot in an axis,
reset_limits!(ax)
is called, which adjusts the limits to the new bounds. If you have previously set limits with
limits!
,
xlims!
or
ylims!
, these limits are not overridden by the new plot. If you want to override the manually set limits, call
autolimits!(ax)
to compute completely new limits from the axis content.
The user-defined limits are stored in
ax.limits
. This can either be a tuple with two entries, where each entry can be either
nothing
or a tuple with numbers
(low, high)
.It can also be a tuple with four numbers
(xlow, xhigh, ylow, yhigh)
. You can pass this directly when creating a new axis. The same observable
limits
is also set using
limits!
,
xlims!
and
ylims!
, or reset to
(nothing, nothing)
using
autolimits!
.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure()
lines(f[1, 1], 0..10, sin)
lines(f[1, 2], 0..10, sin, axis = (limits = (0, 10, -1, 1),))
f
Modifying ticks
To control ticks, you can set the axis attributes
xticks/yticks
and
xtickformat/ytickformat
.
You can overload one or more of these three functions to implement custom ticks:
tickvalues, ticklabels = MakieLayout.get_ticks(ticks, scale, formatter, vmin, vmax)
tickvalues = MakieLayout.get_tickvalues(ticks, vmin, vmax)
ticklabels = MakieLayout.get_ticklabels(formatter, tickvalues)
If you overload
get_ticks
, you have to compute both tickvalues and ticklabels directly as a vector of floats and strings, respectively. Otherwise the result of
get_tickvalues
is passed to
get_ticklabels
by default. The limits of the respective axis are passed as
vmin
and
vmax
.
A couple of behaviors are implemented by default. You can specify static ticks by passing an iterable of numbers. You can also pass a tuple with tick values and tick labels directly, bypassing the formatting step.
As a third option you can pass a function taking minimum and maximum axis value as arguments and returning either a vector of tickvalues which are then passed to the current formatter, or a tuple with tickvalues and ticklabels which are then used directly.
For formatting, you can pass a function which takes a vector of numbers and outputs a vector of strings. You can also pass a format string which is passed to
Formatting.format
from
Formatting.jl
, where you can mix the formatted numbers with other text like in
"{:.2f}ms"
.
Predefined ticks
The default tick type is
LinearTicks(n)
, where
n
is the target number of ticks which the algorithm tries to return.
using CairoMakie
fig = Figure()
for (i, n) in enumerate([2, 5, 9])
lines(fig[i, 1], 0..20, sin, axis = (xticks = LinearTicks(n),))
end
fig
There's also
WilkinsonTicks
which uses the alternative Wilkinson algorithm.
MultiplesTicks
can be used when an axis should be marked at multiples of a certain number. A common scenario is plotting a trigonometric function which should be marked at pi intervals.
using CairoMakie
lines(0..20, sin, axis = (xticks = MultiplesTicks(4, pi, "π"),))
Here are a couple of examples that show off different settings for ticks and formats.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure()
axes = [Axis(f[i, j]) for i in 1:2, j in 1:2]
xs = LinRange(0, 2pi, 50)
for (i, ax) in enumerate(axes)
ax.title = "Axis $i"
lines!(ax, xs, sin.(xs))
end
axes[1].xticks = 0:6
axes[2].xticks = 0:pi:2pi
axes[2].xtickformat = xs -> ["$(x/pi)π" for x in xs]
axes[3].xticks = (0:pi:2pi, ["start", "middle", "end"])
axes[4].xticks = 0:pi:2pi
axes[4].xtickformat = "{:.2f}ms"
axes[4].xlabel = "Time"
f
Minor ticks and grids
You can show minor ticks and grids by setting
x/yminorticksvisible = true
and
x/yminorgridvisible = true
which are off by default. You can set size, color, width, align etc. like for the normal ticks, but there are no labels. The
x/yminorticks
attributes control how minor ticks are computed given major ticks and axis limits. For that purpose you can create your own minortick type and overload
MakieLayout.get_minor_tickvalues(minorticks, tickvalues, vmin, vmax)
.
The default minor tick type is
IntervalsBetween(n, mirror = true)
where
n
gives the number of intervals each gap between major ticks is divided into with minor ticks, and
mirror
decides if outside of the major ticks there are more minor ticks with the same intervals as the adjacent gaps.
using CairoMakie
theme = Attributes(
Axis = (
xminorticksvisible = true,
yminorticksvisible = true,
xminorgridvisible = true,
yminorgridvisible = true,
)
)
fig = with_theme(theme) do
fig = Figure()
axs = [Axis(fig[fldmod1(n, 2)...],
title = "IntervalsBetween($(n+1))",
xminorticks = IntervalsBetween(n+1),
yminorticks = IntervalsBetween(n+1)) for n in 1:4]
fig
end
fig
Minor ticks can also be given as an
AbstractVector
of real numbers.
using CairoMakie
lines(1..10, sin, axis = (
yminorgridvisible = true,
yminorticksvisible = true,
yminorticks = -0.9:0.1:0.9,
yticks = [-1, 1],
))
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
Log scales and other axis scales
The two attributes
xscale
and
yscale
, which by default are set to
identity
, can be used to project the data in a nonlinear way, in addition to the linear zoom that the limits provide.
Take care that the axis limits always stay inside the limits appropriate for the chosen scaling function, for example,
log
functions fail for values
x <= 0
,
sqrt
for
x < 0
, etc.
using CairoMakie
data = LinRange(0.01, 0.99, 200)
f = Figure(resolution = (800, 800))
for (i, scale) in enumerate([identity, log10, log2, log, sqrt, Makie.logit])
row, col = fldmod1(i, 2)
Axis(f[row, col], yscale = scale, title = string(scale),
yminorticksvisible = true, yminorgridvisible = true,
yminorticks = IntervalsBetween(8))
lines!(data, color = :blue)
end
f
Pseudolog and symlog scales
Some plotting functions, like barplots or density plots, have offset parameters which are usually zero, which you have to set to some non-zero value explicitly so they work in
log
axes.
using CairoMakie
processors = ["VAX-11/780", "Sun-4/260", "PowerPC 604",
"Alpha 21164", "Intel Pentium III", "Intel Xeon"]
relative_speeds = [1, 9, 117, 280, 1779, 6505]
barplot(relative_speeds, fillto = 0.5,
axis = (yscale = log10, ylabel ="relative speed",
xticks = (1:6, processors), xticklabelrotation = pi/8))
ylims!(0.5, 10000)
current_figure()
Another option are pseudolog and symlog scales. Pseudolog is similar to log, but modified in order to work for zero and for negative values. The
pseudolog10
function is defined as
sign(x) * log10(abs(x) + 1)
.
Another option for symmetric log scales including zero is the symmetric log scale
Symlog10
, which combines a normal log scale with a linear scale between two boundary values around zero.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure(resolution = (800, 700))
lines(f[1, 1], -100:0.1:100, axis = (
yscale = Makie.pseudolog10,
title = "Pseudolog scale",
yticks = [-100, -10, -1, 0, 1, 10, 100]))
lines(f[2, 1], -100:0.1:100, axis = (
yscale = Makie.Symlog10(10.0),
title = "Symlog10 with linear scaling between -10 and 10",
yticks = [-100, -10, 0, 10, 100]))
f
Controlling Axis aspect ratios
If you're plotting images, you might want to force a specific aspect ratio of an axis, so that the images are not stretched. The default is that an axis uses all of the available space in the layout. You can use
AxisAspect
and
DataAspect
to control the aspect ratio. For example,
AxisAspect(1)
forces a square axis and
AxisAspect(2)
results in a rectangle with a width of two times the height.
DataAspect
uses the currently chosen axis limits and brings the axes into the same aspect ratio. This is the easiest to use with images. A different aspect ratio can only reduce the axis space that is being used, also it necessarily has to break the layout a little bit.
using CairoMakie
using FileIO
f = Figure()
axes = [Axis(f[i, j]) for i in 1:2, j in 1:3]
tightlimits!.(axes)
img = rotr90(load(assetpath("cow.png")))
for ax in axes
image!(ax, img)
end
axes[1, 1].title = "Default"
axes[1, 2].title = "DataAspect"
axes[1, 2].aspect = DataAspect()
axes[1, 3].title = "AxisAspect(418/348)"
axes[1, 3].aspect = AxisAspect(418/348)
axes[2, 1].title = "AxisAspect(1)"
axes[2, 1].aspect = AxisAspect(1)
axes[2, 2].title = "AxisAspect(2)"
axes[2, 2].aspect = AxisAspect(2)
axes[2, 3].title = "AxisAspect(2/3)"
axes[2, 3].aspect = AxisAspect(2/3)
f
Controlling data aspect ratios
If you want the content of an axis to adhere to a certain data aspect ratio, there is another way than forcing the aspect ratio of the whole axis to be the same, and possibly breaking the layout. This works via the axis attribute
autolimitaspect
. It can either be set to
nothing
which means the data limits can have any arbitrary aspect ratio. Or it can be set to a number, in which case the targeted limits of the axis (that are computed by
autolimits!
) are enlarged to have the correct aspect ratio.
You can see the different ways to get a plot with an unstretched circle, using different ways of setting aspect ratios, in the following example.
using CairoMakie
using Animations
# scene setup for animation
###########################################################
container_scene = Scene(camera = campixel!, resolution = (1200, 1200))
t = Node(0.0)
a_width = Animation([1, 7], [1200.0, 800], sineio(n=2, yoyo=true, postwait=0.5))
a_height = Animation([2.5, 8.5], [1200.0, 800], sineio(n=2, yoyo=true, postwait=0.5))
scene_area = lift(t) do t
Recti(0, 0, round(Int, a_width(t)), round(Int, a_height(t)))
end
scene = Scene(container_scene, scene_area, camera = campixel!)
rect = poly!(scene, scene_area,
raw=true, color=RGBf(0.97, 0.97, 0.97), strokecolor=:transparent, strokewidth=0)
outer_layout = GridLayout(scene, alignmode = Outside(30))
# example begins here
###########################################################
layout = outer_layout[1, 1] = GridLayout()
titles = ["aspect enforced\nvia layout", "axis aspect\nset directly", "no aspect enforced", "data aspect conforms\nto axis size"]
axs = layout[1:2, 1:2] = [Axis(scene, title = t) for t in titles]
for a in axs
lines!(a, Circle(Point2f(0, 0), 100f0))
end
rowsize!(layout, 1, Fixed(400))
# force the layout cell [1, 1] to be square
colsize!(layout, 1, Aspect(1, 1))
axs[2].aspect = 1
axs[4].autolimitaspect = 1
rects = layout[1:2, 1:2] = [Box(scene, color = (:black, 0.05),
strokecolor = :transparent) for _ in 1:4]
record(container_scene, "example_circle_aspect_ratios.mp4", 0:1/30:9; framerate=30) do ti
t[] = ti
end
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
Changing x and y axis position
By default, the x axis is at the bottom, and the y axis at the left side. You can change this with the attributes
xaxisposition = :top
and
yaxisposition = :right
.
using CairoMakie
f = Figure()
for i in 1:2, j in 1:2
Axis(
f[i, j],
limits = (0, 5, 0, 5),
xaxisposition = (i == 1 ? :top : :bottom),
yaxisposition = (j == 1 ? :left : :right))
end
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)
.
Activating and deactivating interactions
Often, you don't want to remove an interaction entirely but only disable it for a moment, then reenable 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 MakieLayout.process_interaction(interaction::MyInteraction, event::MouseEvent, axis)
if interaction.use_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 MakieLayout.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.
These docs were autogenerated using Makie: v0.15.3, GLMakie: v0.4.7, CairoMakie: v0.6.6, WGLMakie: v0.4.7