Python matplotlib colorbar axis offset string position/location

Question

I want to make a contour-plot with a horizontal colorbar. The bar should have labels with scientific notation. Everything goes well in the code below. However, now I want to change the position of the multiplicator specifying the scientific scale. I think this is called an offset string by the axis. Does anybody know how to do this? I want to place the multiplicator right of the colorbar (as if it would be an additional label).

#http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/griddata_demo.html
from numpy.random import uniform, seed
from matplotlib.mlab import griddata
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import rcParams
from matplotlib import rc

# make up data.
seed(0)
npts = 200
x = uniform(-2,2,npts)
y = uniform(-2,2,npts)
z = x*np.exp(-x**2-y**2)
# define grid
xi = np.linspace(-2.1,2.1,100)
yi = np.linspace(-2.1,2.1,200)
# grid the data.
zi = griddata(x,y,z,xi,yi,interp='linear')

rcParams['axes.formatter.limits'] = (-1,1)

plt.figure()
CS    = plt.contour(xi,yi,zi,25,cmap=plt.cm.jet)
bar    = plt.colorbar(orientation='horizontal') # draw colorbar
# plot data points.
plt.xlim(-2,2)
plt.ylim(-2,2)
plt.title('griddata test (%d points)' % npts)
plt.show()

Answer 1

From your code above, just use:

bar.ax.xaxis.get_offset_text().set_position((x,y))

where (x,y) is the location where you want the text in axes coordinates (e.g. x=0 is the left hand side and x=1 is the right hand side).

Also note that setting the y-coordinate won't do anything in this case, as the location in the y-direction is controlled by the axis padding, etc. (You can change it, but it's slightly more complicated.)