tick label positions for matplotlib 3D plot

Question

I am trying to work out how to set/correct the position of tick labels for a 3D matplotlib plot. Tick labels do not align with the ticks. The issue seems to be especially prominent when many tick labels are required.

I have modified an example (http://matplotlib.org/examples/mplot3d/polys3d_demo.html) from the matplotlib documentation to illustrate my question.

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
from matplotlib.collections import PolyCollection
from matplotlib.colors import colorConverter
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
ax = fig.gca(projection='3d')

cc = lambda arg: colorConverter.to_rgba(arg, alpha=0.6)

xs = np.arange(0, 10, 0.4)
verts = []
zs = np.arange(50)
for z in zs:
    ys = np.ones(len(xs))*z
    ys[0], ys[-1] = 0, 0
    verts.append(list(zip(xs, ys)))

poly = PolyCollection(verts,facecolor='c')
poly.set_alpha(0.7)
ax.add_collection3d(poly, zs=zs, zdir='y')

ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_xlim3d(0, 10)
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_ylim3d(-1, len(zs))
ax.set_yticks(np.arange(len(zs)))
labels = {}
for l_c in zs:
    labels[l_c] = 'This Looks Bad'
ax.set_yticklabels(labels,rotation=-15)
ax.set_zlabel('Z')
ax.set_zlim3d(0, ys.max())

plt.show()

So the question is: how can I get the tick labels to align with the tick positions?

Answer 1

By using these alignments, I get much better placements:

ax.set_yticklabels(labels,rotation=-15,
                   verticalalignment='baseline',
                   horizontalalignment='left')

I've modified the example with less tick markers so you can see the placement:

Answer 2

You can also set the pad argument as negative in the tick_params options for each axis. Like this:

    ax.tick_params(axis='x', which='major', pad=-3)

This might help to adjust the distance between tick labels and axis.