italic symbols in matplotlib?

Question

I'm trying to get the gamma symbol to be italicised in a plot label but can't figure out how to do it?

I thought this should work (but doesn't)

plt.xlabel(r'$\mathit{\Gamma}$$^{*}$')

I should add I am using the Helvetica font, so don't want to switch into tex mode, e.g. this doesn't work for me:

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams['font.family'] = "sans-serif"
plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif'] = "Helvetica"
plt.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
plt.plot(range(5), range(5))
plt.title('$\Gamma + \mathit{\Gamma}$', fontsize=40)
plt.show()

thanks,

Martin

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 01 '16 at 14:36

21

Write the text between '$$' that forces the text to be interpreted.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot(range(5), range(5))
plt.title('$\it{text you want to show in italics}$')
plt.show()

answered Nov 01 '16 at 14:36

Homayoun Hamedmoghadam

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Hi Homayoun. I have a problem, when I'm using your method. My text goes italic but font changes, and isn't Times New Roman anymore. Do you know how to fix that? – Cro Simpson2.0 Jan 01 '20 at 19:49
2

Hi @CroSimpson2.0, I think your problem may be solved by setting `plt.rcParams['text.usetex'] = False` (which is the default). Matplotlib then uses [it's own TeX-like parsing](https://matplotlib.org/stable/tutorials/text/mathtext.html) and should not switch fonts. – Arne L. Feb 23 '22 at 10:21

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 09 '15 at 03:06

5

You should set usetex = True. See here.

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

matplotlib.rc('text', usetex = True)

plt.plot(range(5), range(5))
plt.title('$\Gamma + \mathit{\Gamma}$', fontsize=40)
plt.show()

Output:

answered Sep 09 '15 at 03:06

Sait

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I don't want to switch into tex mode as I'm using the Helvetica font. I've edited my question above (thanks though). – user1516252 Sep 09 '15 at 03:41
Nothing really prevents you from using Helvetica in TeX. Add `\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}`, `\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}` and `\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}` to the preamble (`pgf.preamble` field in `matplotlib`'s `rcParams`). – fjarri Sep 09 '15 at 04:20

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 09 '15 at 03:52

One solution I've found:

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams['font.family'] = "sans-serif"
plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif'] = "Helvetica"
plt.rcParams['text.usetex'] = False
plt.plot(range(5), range(5))
plt.title(u'${\u0413}$', fontsize=20)
plt.show()

italic symbols in matplotlib?

3 Answers3

Output:

Linked