Move and resize legends-box in matplotlib

Question

I\'m creating plots using Matplotlib that I save as SVG, export to .pdf + .pdf_tex using Inkscape, and include the .pdf_tex-file in a LaTeX document.

This means tha

Answer 1

You may use the bbox_to_anchor and bbox_transform parameters to help you setting the anchor for your legend:

ax = plt.gca()
plt.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(1.1, 1.1), bbox_transform=ax.transAxes)

Note that (1.1, 1.1) are in the axes coordinates in this example. If you wish to use the data coordinates you have to use bbox_transform=ax.transData instead.

Answer 2

You can move a legend after automatically placing it by drawing it, and then getting the bbox position. Here's an example:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Plot data
x = np.linspace(0,1,100)
y = x**2
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(221) #small subplot to show how the legend has moved. 

# Create legend
plt.plot(x, y, label = '{\\footnotesize \$y = x^2\$}')
leg = plt.legend( loc = 'upper right')

plt.draw() # Draw the figure so you can find the positon of the legend. 

# Get the bounding box of the original legend
bb = leg.get_bbox_to_anchor().inverse_transformed(ax.transAxes)

# Change to location of the legend. 
xOffset = 1.5
bb.x0 += xOffset
bb.x1 += xOffset
leg.set_bbox_to_anchor(bb, transform = ax.transAxes)


# Update the plot
plt.show()