Nice question, a while ago I've experimented a bit with this, but haven't used it a lot because it's still not bulletproof. I divided the plot area into a 32x32 grid and calculated a 'potential field' for the best position of a label for each line according the following rules:
- white space is a good place for a label
- Label should be near corresponding line
- Label should be away from the other lines
The code was something like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from scipy import ndimage
def my_legend(axis = None):
if axis == None:
axis = plt.gca()
N = 32
Nlines = len(axis.lines)
print Nlines
xmin, xmax = axis.get_xlim()
ymin, ymax = axis.get_ylim()
# the 'point of presence' matrix
pop = np.zeros((Nlines, N, N), dtype=np.float)
for l in range(Nlines):
# get xy data and scale it to the NxN squares
xy = axis.lines[l].get_xydata()
xy = (xy - [xmin,ymin]) / ([xmax-xmin, ymax-ymin]) * N
xy = xy.astype(np.int32)
# mask stuff outside plot
mask = (xy[:,0] >= 0) & (xy[:,0] < N) & (xy[:,1] >= 0) & (xy[:,1] < N)
xy = xy[mask]
# add to pop
for p in xy:
pop[l][tuple(p)] = 1.0
# find whitespace, nice place for labels
ws = 1.0 - (np.sum(pop, axis=0) > 0) * 1.0
# don't use the borders
ws[:,0] = 0
ws[:,N-1] = 0
ws[0,:] = 0
ws[N-1,:] = 0
# blur the pop's
for l in range(Nlines):
pop[l] = ndimage.gaussian_filter(pop[l], sigma=N/5)
for l in range(Nlines):
# positive weights for current line, negative weight for others....
w = -0.3 * np.ones(Nlines, dtype=np.float)
w[l] = 0.5
# calculate a field
p = ws + np.sum(w[:, np.newaxis, np.newaxis] * pop, axis=0)
plt.figure()
plt.imshow(p, interpolation='nearest')
plt.title(axis.lines[l].get_label())
pos = np.argmax(p) # note, argmax flattens the array first
best_x, best_y = (pos / N, pos % N)
x = xmin + (xmax-xmin) * best_x / N
y = ymin + (ymax-ymin) * best_y / N
axis.text(x, y, axis.lines[l].get_label(),
horizontalalignment='center',
verticalalignment='center')
plt.close('all')
x = np.linspace(0, 1, 101)
y1 = np.sin(x * np.pi / 2)
y2 = np.cos(x * np.pi / 2)
y3 = x * x
plt.plot(x, y1, 'b', label='blue')
plt.plot(x, y2, 'r', label='red')
plt.plot(x, y3, 'g', label='green')
my_legend()
plt.show()
And the resulting plot:
