Save plot to image file instead of displaying it using Matplotlib

Question

I am writing a quick-and-dirty script to generate plots on the fly. I am using the code below (from Matplotlib documentation) as a starting point:

from pylab         


        

Answer 1

According to question Matplotlib (pyplot) savefig outputs blank image.

One thing should note: if you use plt.show and it should after plt.savefig, or you will give a blank image.

A detailed example:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


def draw_result(lst_iter, lst_loss, lst_acc, title):
    plt.plot(lst_iter, lst_loss, '-b', label='loss')
    plt.plot(lst_iter, lst_acc, '-r', label='accuracy')

    plt.xlabel("n iteration")
    plt.legend(loc='upper left')
    plt.title(title)
    plt.savefig(title+".png")  # should before plt.show method

    plt.show()


def test_draw():
    lst_iter = range(100)
    lst_loss = [0.01 * i + 0.01 * i ** 2 for i in xrange(100)]
    # lst_loss = np.random.randn(1, 100).reshape((100, ))
    lst_acc = [0.01 * i - 0.01 * i ** 2 for i in xrange(100)]
    # lst_acc = np.random.randn(1, 100).reshape((100, ))
    draw_result(lst_iter, lst_loss, lst_acc, "sgd_method")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    test_draw()

Answer 2

Additionally to those above, I added __file__ for the name so the picture and Python file get the same names. I also added few arguments to make It look better:

# Saves a PNG file of the current graph to the folder and updates it every time
# (nameOfimage, dpi=(sizeOfimage),Keeps_Labels_From_Disappearing)
plt.savefig(__file__+".png",dpi=(250), bbox_inches='tight')
# Hard coded name: './test.png'