Direct labels¶

Delete the legend; name each line at its end, or beside the point the reader is looking at.

line_labels replaces a legend: delete ax.legend() and each line gets its label= text at its right end, in its line's colour. Where lines converge, the labels shift apart just enough to stay readable, keeping their order. at="start" labels the left ends instead, slopegraph-style, which pairs well with frame="loose" since the offset spine leaves room for the text:

ax.vzs.line_labels()
ax.vzs.line_labels(at="start")

label puts a label beside a named artist at a spine coordinate you choose, where the reader will look for it. The text is the artist's label=, the anchor is the line's crossing or the scatter's nearest point, and from there the text slides just far enough to clear the other ink: right of the anchor by default, left, above or below when the right is blocked, or where side= says. A list of names labels several artists at one coordinate, a scatter of a single point needs no coordinate at all, and the module function takes the same arguments:

ax.vzs.label("measured", x=17.2)
ax.vzs.label(["SSP1-1.9", "SSP2-4.5"], x=2060)
ax.scatter([x], [y], label="Belgium")
ax.vzs.label("Belgium")
vzs.label(ax, "Belgium")

Doumont's resonance figure is the model: "measured" beside the topmost point and "calculated" beside the flank under it, each anchored where the reader looks and slid just clear of the ink:

Labelling is deliberate: you name each label, the library decides only how far it moves. Naming many points of one cloud is a different problem, and textalloc and adjustText solve it.

Tick labels get the same care: ticks placed by the data, such as QuartileLocator's, can land arbitrarily close, and where their labels crowd they shift apart just enough to stay readable, keeping their order. The tick marks stay exactly at their values.