How to make hand-drawn style plots in Python

Python gives us the option to make xkcd style plots using the matplotlib library. For the plots we will use Pandas. The trick is to use the command with plt.xkcd():and then the Pandas plot will be converted to xkcd style.

Bar Plots

For every case, we will provide reproducible code.

speed = [0.1, 17.5, 40, 48, 52, 69, 88]
lifespan = [2, 8, 70, 1.5, 25, 12, 28]
index = ['snail', 'pig', 'elephant', 'rabbit', 'giraffe', 'coyote', 'horse']
df = pd.DataFrame({'speed': speed,  'lifespan': lifespan}, index=index)

with plt.xkcd():
    plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [12, 8]
    # This figure will be in XKCD-style
    fig1 = plt.figure()
    ax = df.plot.bar()
 

Scatter Plots

df = pd.DataFrame([[5.1, 3.5, 0], [4.9, 3.0, 0], [7.0, 3.2, 1], [6.4, 3.2, 1], [5.9, 3.0, 2]], 
                      columns=['length', 'width', 'species'])

with plt.xkcd():
    plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [12, 8]
    # This figure will be in XKCD-style
    fig1 = plt.figure()
    ax = df.plot.scatter(x='length', y='width')
 

Line Plots

df = pd.DataFrame({
   'pig': [20, 18, 489, 675, 1776],
   'horse': [4, 25, 281, 600, 1900]
   }, index=[1990, 1997, 2003, 2009, 2014]) 

with plt.xkcd():
    plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [12, 8]
    # This figure will be in XKCD-style
    fig1 = plt.figure()
    ax = df.plot.line()
 

Density Plots

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'x': [1, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5],
    'y': [4, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6],
})

with plt.xkcd():
    plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [12, 8]
    # This figure will be in XKCD-style
    fig1 = plt.figure()
    ax = df.plot.kde()
 

Area Plot

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'sales': [3, 2, 3, 9, 10, 6],
    'signups': [5, 5, 6, 12, 14, 13],
    'visits': [20, 42, 28, 62, 81, 50],
}, index=pd.date_range(start='2018/01/01', end='2018/07/01',
                       freq='M'))

with plt.xkcd():
    plt.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = [12, 8]
    # This figure will be in XKCD-style
    fig1 = plt.figure()
    ax = df.plot.area()