Rcparams for global defaults in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Setting Global Plot Styles with RcParams in Matplotlib

📖 Scenario: You are preparing multiple charts for a presentation. You want all your plots to have the same style, like font size and line width, so they look consistent without changing each plot separately.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to set global default styles for all plots using matplotlib.rcParams. You will create a simple plot and change the global font size and line width so every plot uses these settings automatically.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary with some sample data for plotting

Set global style defaults using matplotlib.rcParams

Plot the data using the default styles

Print the current global font size and line width settings

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Setting global plot styles helps keep all charts in reports or presentations consistent and saves time by avoiding repeated style settings.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often customize plot styles globally to maintain brand colors and readability in dashboards and reports.

1

Create sample data for plotting

Create a dictionary called data with keys 'x' and 'y'. Set 'x' to the list [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and 'y' to the list [2, 3, 5, 7, 11].

Matplotlib

# Create a dictionary called data with keys 'x' and 'y'
data = {}
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary with keys 'x' and 'y' and assign the exact lists as values.

2

Set global font size and line width using rcParams

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Then set the global font size to 14 and the global line width to 3 using plt.rcParams.

Matplotlib

data = {'x': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 'y': [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]}
# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Set plt.rcParams['font.size'] to 14
# Set plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] to 3
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.rcParams['font.size'] = 14 and plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 3 to set global styles.

3

Plot the data using the global defaults

Use plt.plot() to plot data['x'] and data['y']. Then call plt.show() to display the plot.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

data = {'x': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 'y': [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]}

plt.rcParams['font.size'] = 14
plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 3

# Plot data['x'] vs data['y']
# Show the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.plot(data['x'], data['y']) and then plt.show() to display the plot.

4

Print the current global font size and line width

Print the values of plt.rcParams['font.size'] and plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] on separate lines.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

data = {'x': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 'y': [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]}

plt.rcParams['font.size'] = 14
plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 3

plt.plot(data['x'], data['y'])
plt.show()

# Print the font size and line width
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(plt.rcParams['font.size']) and print(plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth']) to show the current settings.