One may use a mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator.inset_axes
to place an axes inside another axes. This axes can be used to host the colorbar. Its position is relative the the parent axes, similar to how legends are placed, using a loc
argument (e.g. loc=3
means lower left). Its width and height can be specified in absolute numbers (inches) or relative to the parent axes (percentage).
cbaxes = inset_axes(ax1, width="30%", height="3%", loc=3)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator import inset_axes
x = np.random.randn(60)
y = np.random.randn(60)
z = [np.random.random() for _ in range(60)]
fig = plt.figure()
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(1, 2)
ax0 = plt.subplot(gs[0, 0])
plt.scatter(x, y, s=20)
ax1 = plt.subplot(gs[0, 1])
cm = plt.cm.get_cmap('RdYlBu_r')
plt.scatter(x, y, s=20 ,c=z, cmap=cm)
fig.tight_layout()
cbaxes = inset_axes(ax1, width="30%", height="3%", loc=3)
plt.colorbar(cax=cbaxes, ticks=[0.,1], orientation='horizontal')
plt.show()
Note that in order to suppress the warning, one might simply call tight_layout
prior to adding the inset axes.