Matplotlib (pyplot) savefig outputs blank image

tylerthemiler picture tylerthemiler · Jan 26, 2012 · Viewed 197.9k times · Source

I am trying to save plots I make using matplotlib; however, the images are saving blank.

Here is my code:

plt.subplot(121)
plt.imshow(dataStack, cmap=mpl.cm.bone)

plt.subplot(122)
y = copy.deepcopy(tumorStack)
y = np.ma.masked_where(y == 0, y)

plt.imshow(dataStack, cmap=mpl.cm.bone)
plt.imshow(y, cmap=mpl.cm.jet_r, interpolation='nearest')

if T0 is not None:
    plt.subplot(123)
    plt.imshow(T0, cmap=mpl.cm.bone)

    #plt.subplot(124)
    #Autozoom

#else:
    #plt.subplot(124)
    #Autozoom

plt.show()
plt.draw()
plt.savefig('tessstttyyy.png', dpi=100)

And tessstttyyy.png is blank (also tried with .jpg)

Answer

Yann picture Yann · Jan 26, 2012

First, what happens when T0 is not None? I would test that, then I would adjust the values I pass to plt.subplot(); maybe try values 131, 132, and 133, or values that depend whether or not T0 exists.

Second, after plt.show() is called, a new figure is created. To deal with this, you can

  1. Call plt.savefig('tessstttyyy.png', dpi=100) before you call plt.show()

  2. Save the figure before you show() by calling plt.gcf() for "get current figure", then you can call savefig() on this Figure object at any time.

For example:

fig1 = plt.gcf()
plt.show()
plt.draw()
fig1.savefig('tessstttyyy.png', dpi=100)

In your code, 'tesssttyyy.png' is blank because it is saving the new figure, to which nothing has been plotted.