Tight layout for spacing in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Tight layout for spacing

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple plot with multiple subplots using matplotlib. Sometimes, the default spacing between plots is too wide or overlapping. Using tight layout helps adjust the spacing automatically.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to create multiple subplots and apply tight_layout() to improve spacing between them.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a figure with 2 rows and 2 columns of subplots using matplotlib

Plot simple line data on each subplot

Use tight_layout() to adjust spacing automatically

Print a message confirming the layout adjustment

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

When creating reports or dashboards with multiple charts, tight layout helps make the visuals clear and neat without overlapping labels or titles.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often create multiple plots for data exploration and presentation. Knowing how to adjust plot spacing improves the quality of visual reports.

1

Create 2x2 subplots with sample data

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Create a figure and 2x2 subplots using plt.subplots(2, 2). Plot the line [1, 2, 3] on each subplot using ax.plot([1, 2, 3]) in a loop over all axes stored in axes.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2)
# Plot [1, 2, 3] on each subplot
for ax in axes.flat:
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.subplots(2, 2) to create 4 subplots and loop over axes.flat to plot on each.

2

Add a configuration variable for spacing padding

Create a variable called padding and set it to 0.5. This will be used later to control spacing padding in tight_layout().

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2)
for ax in axes.flat:
    ax.plot([1, 2, 3])

# Create padding variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just create a variable named padding and assign it the value 0.5.

3

Apply tight layout with padding

Use fig.tight_layout(pad=padding) to adjust the spacing between subplots using the padding variable.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2)
for ax in axes.flat:
    ax.plot([1, 2, 3])
padding = 0.5

# Apply tight layout with padding
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Call fig.tight_layout() with the argument pad=padding.

4

Print confirmation message

Print the message 'Tight layout applied with padding 0.5' to confirm the layout adjustment.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2)
for ax in axes.flat:
    ax.plot([1, 2, 3])
padding = 0.5
fig.tight_layout(pad=padding)

# Print confirmation message
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print() to display the exact message.