python + matplotlib: barh plot show incomplete YTick labels - how to dynamically move the plot area to the right to fit the given YTickLabels?

Question

I\'m using matplotlib to plot a barh plot to a file. Unfortunate, the YTickLaels are a bit too long and the plot area won\'t move to the right auto

Answer 1

According to matplotlib mailing list, there is no automatic way of doing this. However, you can manually ajdust subplot padding by using figure.subplots_adjust method. Placing fig.subplots_adjust(left = 0.4) after ax = fig.add_subplot(111) in your code yields following result:

Answer 2

Actually, there is an automatic way of doing this now: tight_layout.

In your case:

import matplotlib as mpl
mpl.use('Agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
D = {u'Label1':26, u'Label2 is longer than others': 17, 
     u'Label3 is not so short either':30}
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5.5,3),dpi=300)
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.grid(True,which='both')
bar = ax.barh(range(1,len(D)+1,1),D.values(),0.4,align='center')
plt.yticks(range(1,len(D)+1,1), D.keys(), size='small')
fig.tight_layout() # <---- ADD THIS
fig.savefig('D_bar.png')