Reference

snaplot.main.Camera

A class for capturing matplotlib figures and exporting them as a GIF.

It works with every visualization library based on matplotlib such as seaborn, plotnine, etc, and matplotlib itself.

Under the hood, it saves all intermediate files on the disk and combine them at the end using the gifing package.

Attributes:

Name	Type	Description
verbose	bool	If True, prints log messages during execution.
directory	str	Directory path where images are stored.
n_images	int	Count of currently saved images.
file_paths	list	List of saved image file paths.

get_files()

Retrieve all current intermediate file paths.

snap(fig=None, extension='png', **kwargs)

Take a snapshot of your latest plot.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fig	Figure	The figure to save. If None, uses the current active figure.	None
extension	str	File extension/format to save the figure (e.g., 'png', 'jpg').	'png'
**kwargs	Dict	Additional keyword arguments passed to fig.savefig.	{}

start(record_id, *, force_new=False, verbose=True) classmethod

Initiate a Camera instance and start to record.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
record_id	int	Id used to make sure snaplot does not confuse records with each others.	required
force_new	bool	If True, re-start the recording from 0 (and 'forget' all previous images). This is useful to avoid accidently delete intermediate images when running Camera.start().	False
verbose	bool	If True, enables logging of actions.	True

stop(path, frame_duration=100, n_repeat_last_frame=1, resolution='auto')

Compile the saved images into a GIF.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
path	str	Output path for the final GIF.	required
frame_duration	int	Duration of each frame in milliseconds.	100
n_repeat_last_frame	int	Number of times to repeat the last frame.	1
resolution	Union[str, Tuple, List]	An optional array with 2 integers (width and height, in pixels) for the resolution of the GIF. By default, it will use the dimensions of the last image in inches and convert them to pixels.	'auto'

Usage

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from snaplot import Camera

camera = Camera.start()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])  # first chart
camera.snap()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [4, 2, 3], color="red")  # second chart
camera.snap()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 5, 3], color="green", lw=3)  # third chart
camera.snap()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([5, 2, 4], [2, 3, 3], color="blue", lw=6)  # fourth chart
camera.snap()

camera.stop("my_file.gif", frame_duration=300)