Notebook

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You can set up Plotly to work in online or offline mode, or in jupyter notebooks.
We also have a quick-reference cheatsheet (new!) to help you get started!

Version Check¶

Plotly's python package is updated frequently. Run pip install plotly --upgrade to use the latest version.

In [3]:

import plotly
plotly.__version__

Out[3]:

'2.4.1'

Add Marker Border¶

In order to make markers distinct, you can add a border to the markers. This can be achieved by adding the line dict to the marker dict. For example, marker:{..., line: {...}}.

In [4]:

import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

import numpy as np

x = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
  
data = [
    go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = x,
        y = y,
        marker = dict(
          color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
          size = 20,
          line = dict(
            color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
            width = 2
          )
        ),
        showlegend = False
  ),
  go.Scatter(
      mode = 'markers',
      x = [2],
      y = [4.5],
      marker = dict(
        color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
        size = 120,
        line = dict(
          color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
          width = 12
        )
      ),
      showlegend = False
  )]

py.iplot(data, filename = "style-add-border")

Out[4]:

Fully Opaque¶

Fully opaque, the default setting, is useful for non-overlapping markers. When many points overlap it can be hard to observe density.

In [5]:

import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

import numpy as np

x = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
  
data = [
    go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = x,
        y = y,
        marker = dict(
          color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
          size = 20,
          line = dict(
            color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
            width = 2
          )
        ),
        showlegend = False
      ),
      go.Scatter(
          mode = 'markers',
          x = [2,2],
          y = [4.25,4.75],
          marker = dict(
            color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
            size = 80,
            line = dict(
              color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
              width = 8
            )
          ),
          showlegend = False
    )]

py.iplot(data, filename = "style-full-opaque")

Out[5]:

Opacity¶

Setting opacity outside the marker will set the opacity of the trace. Thus, it will allow greater visbility of additional traces but like fully opaque it is hard to distinguish density.

In [6]:

import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

import numpy as np

x = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=4.5, size=(500,))
x2 = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y2 = np.random.uniform(low=4.5, high=6, size=(500,))
  
data = [
    go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = x,
        y = y,
        opacity = 0.5,
        marker = dict(
          color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
          size = 20,
          line = dict(
            color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
            width = 2
          )
        ),
        name = 'Opacity 0.5'
      ),
     go.Scatter(
       mode = 'markers',
       x = x2,
       y = y2,
       marker = dict(
         color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
         size = 20,
         line = dict(
           color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
           width = 2
         )
       ),
       name = 'Opacity 1.0'
     ),
     go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = [2,2],
        y = [4.25,4.75],
        opacity = 0.5,
        marker = dict(
           color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
           size = 80,
           line = dict(
              color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
              width = 8
           )
        ),
        showlegend = False
    )]

py.iplot(data, filename = "style-opacity")

Out[6]:

Marker Opacity¶

To maximise visibility of density, it is recommended to set the opacity inside the marker marker:{opacity:0.5}. If mulitple traces exist with high density, consider using marker opacity in conjunction with trace opacity.

In [7]:

import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

import numpy as np

x = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
  
data = [
    go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = x,
        y = y,
        marker = dict(
          color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
          size = 20,
          opacity = 0.5,
          line = dict(
            color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
            width = 2
          )
        ),
        showlegend = False
      ),
      go.Scatter(
          mode = 'markers',
          x = [2,2],
          y = [4.25,4.75],
          marker = dict(
            color = 'rgb(17, 157, 255)',
            size = 80,
            opacity = 0.5,
            line = dict(
              color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
              width = 8
            )
          ),
          showlegend = False
    )]

py.iplot(data, filename = "style-marker-opacity")

Out[7]:

Color Opacity¶

To maximise visibility of each point, set the color opacity by using alpha: marker:{color: 'rgba(0,0,0,0.5)'}. Here, the marker line will remain opaque.

In [8]:

import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

import numpy as np

x = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
y = np.random.uniform(low=3, high=6, size=(500,))
  
data = [
    go.Scatter(
        mode = 'markers',
        x = x,
        y = y,
        marker = dict(
          color = 'rgba(17, 157, 255, 0.5)',
          size = 20,
          line = dict(
            color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
            width = 2
          )
        ),
        showlegend = False
      ),
      go.Scatter(
          mode = 'markers',
          x = [2,2],
          y = [4.25,4.75],
          marker = dict(
            color = 'rgba(17, 157, 255, 0.5)',
            size = 80,
            line = dict(
              color = 'rgb(231, 99, 250)',
              width = 8
            )
          ),
          showlegend = False
    )]

py.iplot(data, filename = "style-color-opacity")

Out[8]:

Reference¶

See https://plotly.com/python/reference/ for more information and chart attribute options!

In [9]:

from IPython.display import display, HTML

display(HTML('<link href="//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:600,400,300,200|Inconsolata|Ubuntu+Mono:400,700" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />'))
display(HTML('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://help.plot.ly/documentation/all_static/css/ipython-notebook-custom.css">'))

! pip install git+https://github.com/plotly/publisher.git --upgrade
import publisher
publisher.publish(
    'marker-style.ipynb', 'python/marker-style/', 'Styling Markers',
    'How to style markers in Python with Plotly.',
    title = 'Styling Markers | Plotly',
    has_thumbnail='true', thumbnail='thumbnail/marker-style.gif',
    language='python',
    display_as='file_settings', order=21, ipynb='~notebook_demo/203')

Collecting git+https://github.com/plotly/publisher.git
  Cloning https://github.com/plotly/publisher.git to c:\users\brand\appdata\local\temp\pip-c2tssn0g-build
Installing collected packages: publisher
  Found existing installation: publisher 0.11
    Uninstalling publisher-0.11:
      Successfully uninstalled publisher-0.11
  Running setup.py install for publisher: started
    Running setup.py install for publisher: finished with status 'done'
Successfully installed publisher-0.11

C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\IPython\nbconvert.py:13: ShimWarning:

The `IPython.nbconvert` package has been deprecated since IPython 4.0. You should import from nbconvert instead.

C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\publisher\publisher.py:53: UserWarning:

Did you "Save" this notebook before running this command? Remember to save, always save.

In [ ]: