marker edges overlap with marker #13360

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1. timhoffm commented on Feb 6, 2019

   

   timhoffm

   on Feb 6, 2019

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   1. Overlapping not an issue

   The line is drawn along the edge of the marker. It's common practice in vector graphics that half of the line width is to either side of the drawing path. The "ring" is the overlaid color of the filled area and the edge. This is also standard behavior see e.g. this red circle with a semi-transparent green edge produced in inkscape:

   

   2. Sizes are incorrect

   What actually does not work correctly are the sizes, e.g.

   plt.figure()
   plt.plot([0, 1], [1.7, 1.7], '-', color='grey', lw=100, solid_capstyle='butt')
   plt.plot(1.7, '.', ms=200, mew=0, mec='r')
   plt.plot(1, '.', ms=200, mew=50, mec='r', alpha=0.5)
   plt.xlim(-0.3, 1)
   plt.ylim(0.4, 2.1)
   

   

   1. The line lw=100 and the marker ms=200 have the same size.
   2. mew = 1/4 ms but the plotted edgewidth is 1/2 the marker diameter.
2. krrk commented on Feb 6, 2019

   

   krrk

   on Feb 6, 2019

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   I see, that makes sense. I agree that the sizes are incorrect. In inkscape if the stroke width is 1/4 of the object size that stroke overlays half on the object and half off thus adding exactly its width to the objects width (unlike in matplotlib which currently adds 2*mew to the marker size).
3. QuLogic commented on Feb 6, 2019

   

   QuLogic

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   What actually does not work correctly are the sizes, e.g.

   That's because your example is using '.', or "point" markers, which are intentionally smaller. Using 'o', or "circle" markers, ms=100 comes out the same size as lw=100.
4. QuLogic commented on Feb 6, 2019

   

   QuLogic

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   Note: the actual sizes are rather undocumented except if you look at the table here (which is really just an implicit thing, and not explicitly spelled out.)
5. krrk commented on Feb 28, 2019

   

   krrk

   on Feb 28, 2019

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   @QuLogic So I see now that if using 'o' as the marker then matplotlib matches Inkscape's behavior. The line width is the same as the marker size and the marker edge overlaps half-on/half-off. In that case I believe it to be a bit strange that matplotlib includes markers like '.' that break this behavior. Also it does seem that the '.' marker is currently "broken" in that the marker edge doesn't scale by half its value as does the marker size. In code I'm saying plt.plot(1, 1, 'o', ms=50, mew=0) and plt.plot(1, 1, '.', ms=100, mew=0) are identical yet plt.plot(1, 1, 'o', ms=50, mew=10) and plt.plot(1, 1, '.', ms=100, mew=20) are not. For the point marker the marker size is scaled by 1/2 but the marker edge width is not. Why is that?
6. ImportanceOfBeingErnest commented on Mar 1, 2019

   

   ImportanceOfBeingErnest

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   The "." marker is a "o" marker, scaled by a factor of 0.5.
   The edge is applied after the scaling. So the edgewidth is the same in both cases.
   Meaning, each of the following produces a circle with 60 points diameter

   plt.plot(..., 'o', ms=60, mew=0)
   plt.plot(..., 'o', ms=50, mew=10)
   
   plt.plot(..., '.', ms=120, mew=0)
   plt.plot(..., '.', ms=100, mew=10)
   

   As for the reason for the factor of 0.5, I can only speculate: If you specify ms=1 and no edgewidth, the default edgewidth of 1 point will lead to a 1pt large dot in the figure.
   The logic breaks of course once you use the default (or any other) markersize (e.g. ".", ms=5, mew=1 will be a dot with 3.5pt diameter).
   Anyways, that logic got introduced 14 years ago and before that it looks like it was even less comprehensible.

   I think anyone is welcome to document the factor of 0.5 in the marker documentation.
7. normanius commented on Aug 16, 2019

   

   normanius

   on Aug 16, 2019

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   Just out of curiosity: why should it be good that the edge overlaps the marker filling by half? An edge is an edge, and the current behavior is counter intuitive, especially if the edge color is the same as the fill color.

   I know that this is a very old feature and users have gotten used to it. Adding a bit of control could not harm, though. How about a parameter markeredgeoffset with the default choice reproducing the current behavior, a value 'aligned' (or similar) ensuring that the outer ring does not overlap, and scalar values controlling the offset of the outer ring?
8. timhoffm commented on Aug 16, 2019

   

   timhoffm

   on Aug 16, 2019

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   As written above #13360 (comment), the edge overlapping the marker half is common practice.

   It‘s also much simpler to perform: The edge is a line drawn at the shape coordinates. If you put the line to the inner or outer side of the shape, it‘s point coordinates become dependent on the line width and even worse on the angles of the connecting segments. And even if done correctly, there may be interpolation artifacts at the interface if the body and the line do not overlap.

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9. ImportanceOfBeingErnest commented on Aug 16, 2019

   

   ImportanceOfBeingErnest

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   I think it's not only common practice but it's really the only way to unambiguously define an edge. If you consider the below shape consisting of 4 points, and start to do an "outer" edge, it will soon become an "inner" edge for some part of the shape.

   

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10. timhoffm commented on Aug 16, 2019

    

    timhoffm

    on Aug 16, 2019

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    Closing as intended behavior.
11. timhoffm

    closed this as completedon Aug 16, 2019
12. mzechmeister commented on Feb 17, 2022

    

    mzechmeister

    on Feb 17, 2022

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    Plotting the points twice once without edge and once without face is a workaround:

    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    plt.figure()
    plt.plot(0, 'og', ms=100, mew=10, alpha=0.5)
    plt.plot(1, 'og', ms=100, mew=10, alpha=0.5, mec='None')
    plt.plot(1, 'og', ms=100-10, mew=10, alpha=0.5, mfc='none')
    plt.show()

    
    But a legend will become tricky.
13. timhoffm commented on Feb 17, 2022

    

    timhoffm

    on Feb 17, 2022

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    Another option is to only make the face color transparent and keep the edge solid. This is likely acceptable appearance in many cases:

    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    from matplotlib.colors import to_rgba
    plt.plot([-0.04, 0.04], [0, 0], 'r', lw=5)
    plt.plot(0, 'o', ms=100, mew=10, mfc=to_rgba('g', alpha=0.5), mec='g')
    

    

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