Set background color behind the image in matplotlib

Question

I'm trying to use Matplotlib in Python to display an image and show text at various points over it. I'd like to make the image partially transparent, so to increase the visibility of the text.

However, I want the background color behind the image to be white instead of grey and I can't figure out how to get that change to stick. This is where I'm at.

img = plt.imread("counties.png")
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
plt.axis('off')
plt.text(.6, .68,'matplotlib', ha='center', va='center', 
transform=ax.transAxes, color=(0,.16,.48), fontname='Kanit Light')
plt.text(.5, .5,'test', ha='center', va='center', transform=ax.transAxes, 
color=(0,.16,.48))
ax.imshow(img, alpha=0.05)
plt.show()

Answer 1

To set face color (or background color) of a figure use this function:

fig.patch.set_facecolor('grey')

Or in another way you may call:

plt.rcParams['figure.facecolor'] = 'grey'

Result is like:

However without your image result is incomplete. But if you going to save your figure use command like this: plt.savefig('counties2.png', facecolor = fig.get_facecolor(), transparent = True)