.. _whats-new-3-2-0:

What's new in Matplotlib 3.2 (Mar 04, 2020)
===========================================

For a list of all of the issues and pull requests since the last
revision, see the :ref:`github-stats`.

.. contents:: Table of Contents
   :depth: 4

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 4


Unit converters recognize subclasses
------------------------------------
Unit converters now also handle instances of subclasses of the class they have
been registered for.

`~.pyplot.imsave` accepts metadata and PIL options
--------------------------------------------------
`~.pyplot.imsave` has gained support for the ``metadata`` and ``pil_kwargs``
parameters. These parameters behave similarly as for the `.Figure.savefig()`
method.

`.cbook.normalize_kwargs`
-------------------------
`.cbook.normalize_kwargs` now presents a convenient interface to normalize
artist properties (e.g., from "lw" to "linewidth"):

>>> cbook.normalize_kwargs({"lw": 1}, Line2D)
{"linewidth": 1}

The first argument is the mapping to be normalized, and the second argument can
be an artist class or an artist instance (it can also be a mapping in a
specific format; see the function's docstring for details).

`.FontProperties` accepts `os.PathLike`
---------------------------------------
The *fname* argument to `.FontProperties` can now be an `os.PathLike`,
e.g.

>>> FontProperties(fname=pathlib.Path("/path/to/font.ttf"))

Gouraud-shading alpha channel in PDF backend
--------------------------------------------
The pdf backend now supports an alpha channel in Gouraud-shaded
triangle meshes.

.. _whats-new-3-2-0-kerning:

Kerning adjustments now use correct values
------------------------------------------
Due to an error in how kerning adjustments were applied, previous versions of
Matplotlib would under-correct kerning. This version will now correctly apply
kerning (for fonts supported by FreeType). To restore the old behavior (e.g.,
for test images), you may set :rc:`text.kerning_factor` to 6 (instead of 0).
Other values have undefined behavior.

.. plot::

   import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

   # Use old kerning values:
   plt.rcParams['text.kerning_factor'] = 6
   fig, ax = plt.subplots()
   ax.text(0.0, 0.05, 'BRAVO\nAWKWARD\nVAT\nW.Test', fontsize=56)
   ax.set_title('Before (text.kerning_factor = 6)')

Note how the spacing between characters is uniform between their bounding boxes
(above). With corrected kerning (below), slanted characters (e.g., AV or VA)
will be spaced closer together, as well as various other character pairs,
depending on font support (e.g., T and e, or the period after the W).

.. plot::

   import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

   # Use new kerning values:
   plt.rcParams['text.kerning_factor'] = 0
   fig, ax = plt.subplots()
   ax.text(0.0, 0.05, 'BRAVO\nAWKWARD\nVAT\nW.Test', fontsize=56)
   ax.set_title('After (text.kerning_factor = 0)')


bar3d lightsource shading
-------------------------
:meth:`~.Axes3D.bar3d` now supports lighting from different angles when the *shade*
parameter is ``True``, which can be configured using the ``lightsource``
parameter.

Shifting errorbars
------------------
Previously, `~.Axes.errorbar()` accepted a keyword argument *errorevery* such
that the command ``plt.errorbar(x, y, yerr, errorevery=6)`` would add error
bars to datapoints ``x[::6], y[::6]``.

`~.Axes.errorbar()` now also accepts a tuple for *errorevery* such that
``plt.errorbar(x, y, yerr, errorevery=(start, N))`` adds error bars to points
``x[start::N], y[start::N]``.

Improvements in Logit scale ticker and formatter
------------------------------------------------
Introduced in version 1.5, the logit scale didn't have an appropriate ticker and
formatter. Previously, the location of ticks was not zoom dependent, too many labels
were displayed causing overlapping which broke readability, and label formatting
did not adapt to precision.

Starting from this version, the logit locator has nearly the same behavior as the
locator for the log scale or the linear
scale, depending on used zoom. The number of ticks is controlled. Some minor
labels are displayed adaptively as sublabels in log scale. Formatting is adapted
for probabilities and the precision adapts to the scale.

rcParams for axes title location and color
------------------------------------------
Two new rcParams have been added: :rc:`axes.titlelocation` denotes the default axes title
alignment, and :rc:`axes.titlecolor` the default axes title color.

Valid values for ``axes.titlelocation`` are: left, center, and right.
Valid values for ``axes.titlecolor`` are: auto or a color. Setting it to auto
will fall back to previous behaviour, which is using the color in ``text.color``.

3-digit and 4-digit hex colors
------------------------------
Colors can now be specified using 3-digit or 4-digit hex colors, shorthand for
the colors obtained by duplicating each character, e.g. ``#123`` is equivalent to
``#112233`` and  ``#123a`` is equivalent to ``#112233aa``.



Added support for RGB(A) images in pcolorfast
---------------------------------------------

`.Axes.pcolorfast` now accepts 3D images (RGB or RGBA) arrays.
