Reduce left and right margins in matplotlib plot

Question

I'm struggling to deal with my plot margins in matplotlib. I've used the code below to produce my chart:

plt.imshow(g)
c = plt.colorbar()
c.set_label("Number of Slabs")
plt.savefig("OutputToUse.png")

However, I get an output figure with lots of white space on either side of the plot. I've searched google and read the matplotlib documentation, but I can't seem to find how to reduce this.

Answer 1

One way to automatically do this is the bbox_inches='tight' kwarg to plt.savefig.

E.g.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
data = np.arange(3000).reshape((100,30))
plt.imshow(data)
plt.savefig('test.png', bbox_inches='tight')

Another way is to use fig.tight_layout()

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

xs = np.linspace(0, 1, 20); ys = np.sin(xs)

fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
axes.plot(xs, ys)

# This should be called after all axes have been added
fig.tight_layout()
fig.savefig('test.png')