How to use a (random) *.otf or *.ttf font in matplotlib?

Question

How can I use any type of font in my font library on my computer (e.g. *otf or *ttf) in all my matplotlib figures?

Answer 1

See the example here: http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/api/font_file.html

In general, you'd do something like this if you're wanting to use a specific .ttf file. (Keep in mind that pointing to a specific font file is usually a bad idea!)

import matplotlib.font_manager as fm import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.plot(range(10))  prop = fm.FontProperties(fname='/usr/share/fonts/truetype/groovygh.ttf') ax.set_title('This is some random font', fontproperties=prop, size=32)  plt.show() 

Usually, you'd just point to the name of the font, and let matplotlib worry about finding the specific file. E.g.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  plt.plot(range(10)) plt.title('This is some random font', family='GroovyGhosties', size=32)  plt.show() 

If you want to have matplotlib always use a particular font, then customize your .matplotlibrc file. (font.family is what you'd want to set. Note that you should specify the name of the font, not the path to a specific .ttf file.)

As an example of doing this dynamically (i.e. without setting up a specific .matplotlibrc file):

import matplotlib as mpl mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = 'GroovyGhosties'  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  plt.plot(range(10)) plt.title('Everything is crazy!!!', size=32) plt.show() 

Answer 2

On *nix, you can use all your system fonts by enabling matplotlib's fontconfig backend.

However matplotlib does not really talk to fontconfig libraries it emulates its behaviour by running fontconfig cli utilities.

Therefore, nuking the matplotlib fontconfig cache so it discovers new fonts can be a lifesaver (the existence of this cache is direct proof of lack of complete fontconfig integration).