Simple Layout: Mixed-Complexity Dashboard

Real dashboards rarely have homogeneous labels. Here a 3×3 grid mixes short, medium, and very long titles. dm.simple_layout inspects every visible artist on every axes — texts, titles, axis labels, view-limited tick labels, axis offset text, and legends — and places the GridSpec so the union extent sits at the requested margin from each figure edge. Long labels expand the margins automatically without wasting whitespace on the simpler panels.

margin accepts a Length (dm.inch(0.08) here), a unit string ("5mm"), a percentage string ("2%"), or a bare figure-fraction.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

import dartwork_mpl as dm

dm.style.use("scientific")

# 17 cm × 0.75 ratio (= 12.75 cm tall) stays at the documented
# "oversize-width" ceiling.
fig = plt.figure(figsize=dm.figsize("17cm", 0.75))
gs = fig.add_gridspec(3, 3, hspace=0.3, wspace=0.3)

axes = []
for i in range(3):
    for j in range(3):
        ax = fig.add_subplot(gs[i, j])
        axes.append(ax)

        data = np.random.randn(50).cumsum()
        ax.plot(
            data,
            color=f"oc.{['blue', 'red', 'green'][j]}{4 + i}",
            lw=dm.lw(0.8),
        )

        if i == 0 and j == 0:
            ax.set_ylabel(
                "Very Long Label\nWith Multiple\nLines of Text\n(Complex Units)"
            )
            ax.set_title(
                "Panel with Extremely Long Title\nThat Would Normally Overflow"
            )
        elif i == 1 and j == 1:
            ax.set_ylabel("Medium Label\n(units)")
            ax.set_title("Moderate Title")
        else:
            ax.set_ylabel("Value")
            ax.set_title(f"Panel {i * 3 + j + 1}")

        ax.set_xlabel("Time" if i == 2 else "")

dm.label_axes(axes)

dm.simple_layout(fig, margin=dm.inch(0.08))

plt.suptitle("Dashboard with Auto Layout", fontsize=dm.fs(3), y=1.02)

plt.show()