Saving Matplotlib graphs to image as full screen

Question

The method you use to maximise the window size depends on which matplotlib backend you are using. Please see the following example for the 3 most common backends:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.figure()
plt.plot([1,2], [1,2])

# Option 1
# QT backend
manager = plt.get_current_fig_manager()
manager.window.showMaximized()

# Option 2
# TkAgg backend
manager = plt.get_current_fig_manager()
manager.resize(*manager.window.maxsize())

# Option 3
# WX backend
manager = plt.get_current_fig_manager()
manager.frame.Maximize(True)

plt.show()
plt.savefig('sampleFileName.png')

You can determine which backend you are using with the command matplotlib.get_backend(). When you save the maximized version of the figure it will save a larger image as desired.

As one more option, I think it is also worth looking into

plt.savefig('filename.png', bbox_inches='tight')

This is especially useful if you're doing subplots that has axis labels which look cluttered.

For everyone, who failed to save the plot in fullscreen using the above solutions, here is what really worked for me:

    figure = plt.gcf()  # get current figure
    figure.set_size_inches(32, 18) # set figure's size manually to your full screen (32x18)
    plt.savefig('filename.png', bbox_inches='tight') # bbox_inches removes extra white spaces

You may also want to play with the dpi (The resolution in dots per inch)

    plt.savefig('filename.png', bbox_inches='tight', dpi=100)

For those that receive errors in the answers above, this has worked for me.

#Show full screen
mng = plt.get_current_fig_manager()
mng.full_screen_toggle()

Full example

fig = plt.figure()
fig.imshow(image)
...
plt.figure(fig.number)
mng = plt.get_current_fig_manager()
mng.full_screen_toggle()
fig.show()
fig.savefig('figure.png')
mng.full_screen_toggle()