How to save a Seaborn plot into a file

Question

I tried the following code (test_seaborn.py):

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('Agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
matplotlib.style.use('ggplot')
import seaborn as sns
sns.set()
df = sns.load_dataset('iris')
sns_plot = sns.pairplot(df, hue='species', size=2.5)
fig = sns_plot.get_figure()
fig.savefig("output.png")
#sns.plt.show()

But I get this error:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test_searborn.py", line 11, in <module>
    fig = sns_plot.get_figure()
AttributeError: 'PairGrid' object has no attribute 'get_figure'

I expect the final output.png will exist and look like this:

How can I resolve the problem?

[@Terry Wang's answer down below](https://stackoverflow.com/a/47765118/7954106) worked for me - `Python 2.7.12` and `seaborn 0.7.1` — Cristian E. Nuno, Sep 20 '18 at 19:04
A one-liner for `seaborn 0.9`: `sns.regplot(x='age', y='income', data=pd.read_csv('income_data.csv')).get_figure().savefig('income_f_age.png')` — Anton Tarasenko, Nov 18 '18 at 14:17

score 394 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 12 '22 at 13:54

394

The following calls allow you to access the figure (Seaborn 0.8.1 compatible):

swarm_plot = sns.swarmplot(...)
fig = swarm_plot.get_figure()
fig.savefig("out.png")

as seen previously in this answer.

The suggested solutions are incompatible with Seaborn 0.8.1. They give the following errors because the Seaborn interface has changed:

AttributeError: 'AxesSubplot' object has no attribute 'fig'
When trying to access the figure

AttributeError: 'AxesSubplot' object has no attribute 'savefig'
when trying to use the savefig directly as a function

UPDATE: I have recently used PairGrid object from seaborn to generate a plot similar to the one in this example. In this case, since GridPlot is not a plot object like, for example, sns.swarmplot, it has no get_figure() function. It is possible to directly access the matplotlib figure by:

fig = myGridPlotObject.fig

edited Jan 12 '22 at 13:54

Mateen Ulhaq

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answered Sep 14 '16 at 04:16

Salvatore Cosentino

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I have recently used PairGrid object from seaborn as in the example – Salvatore Cosentino Dec 21 '16 at 07:10
3

This is the only answer that works for PairGrid and JointGrid as well, I think it should be accepted. – Ryszard Cetnarski Sep 21 '18 at 12:44
1

The requirement of get_figure to save the figure is very annoying. It should be possible using on line to save a plot to a file. – Mini Fridge Aug 10 '20 at 11:32

score 81 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '17 at 21:09

81

Some of the above solutions did not work for me. The .fig attribute was not found when I tried that and I was unable to use .savefig() directly. However, what did work was:

sns_plot.figure.savefig("output.png")

I am a newer Python user, so I do not know if this is due to an update. I wanted to mention it in case anybody else runs into the same issues as I did.

answered Jan 03 '17 at 21:09

BazookaDave

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This worked for me with a `seaborn.swarmplot`, but for `seaborn.lmplot` that won't work. With `seaborn.lmplot`, I found `sns_plot.savefig("output.png")` worked like in Salvatore's answer, but without need for `get_figure()` call. – Wayne Apr 12 '18 at 13:49
1

This worked for `displot` with seaborn `0.11.2`. The only answer I could get to work! – Cornelius Roemer Nov 23 '21 at 21:25

Jade Cacho · Answer 3 · 2019-12-19T04:32:12.717

32

Fewer lines for 2019 searchers:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

df = sns.load_dataset('iris')
sns_plot = sns.pairplot(df, hue='species', height=2.5)
plt.savefig('output.png')

UPDATE NOTE: size was changed to height.

edited Dec 19 '19 at 04:32

answered Dec 12 '19 at 12:57

Jade Cacho

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it produces white image! – Minions Dec 28 '20 at 10:42
1

@user_007 not sure why you're getting white image. I just tested the code today and it's fine to both Jupyter Notebook and the output file. You might want to update your console/Python and check your computer View settings. – Jade Cacho Jul 20 '21 at 15:17
1

I had a white figure as well. I corrected it with: `sns_plot.savefig('output.png')` – Reine Baudache Dec 05 '22 at 08:39

Simon Gibbons · Answer 4 · 2015-08-27T09:18:10.130

17

You should just be able to use the savefig method of sns_plot directly.

sns_plot.savefig("output.png")

For clarity with your code if you did want to access the matplotlib figure that sns_plot resides in then you can get it directly with

fig = sns_plot.fig

In this case there is no get_figure method as your code assumes.

edited Aug 27 '15 at 09:18

answered Aug 27 '15 at 09:03

Simon Gibbons

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score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 03:55

11

I use distplot and get_figure to save picture successfully.

sns_hist = sns.distplot(df_train['SalePrice'])
fig = sns_hist.get_figure()
fig.savefig('hist.png')

answered Dec 12 '17 at 03:55

Terry

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Worked for my environment: function `sns.distplot()` in `python 3.5.6` with `seaborn 0.9.0` . Besides, function `sns.pairplot()` doesn't need the line of `get_figure()` – Scott Yang Apr 01 '19 at 07:04

SriK · Answer 6 · 2021-03-31T16:36:14.860

11

I couldnt get the other answers to work and finally got this to work for me for matplotlib==3.2.1 . Its especially true if you are doing this within a for loop or some iterative approach.

sns.scatterplot(
    data=df_hourly, x="date_week", y="value",hue='variable'
)
plt.savefig('./f1.png')
plt.show()

Note that the savefig must be before the show call. Otherwise an empty image is saved.

edited Mar 31 '21 at 16:36

answered Mar 31 '21 at 16:17

SriK

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This actually helped! Thank you. This is the only way it worked for me in Jupyter Notebook – Anscandance Sep 09 '22 at 03:29
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@Anscandance good to hear ! Yeah, i couldnt get the other solutions to work properly as well in the notebook. – SriK Sep 10 '22 at 04:15
Can confirm this works with Matplotlib version 3.7.1 as well. All of the other answers in this thread did not work. – sander Aug 04 '23 at 10:12

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Jan 29 '19 at 09:24

5

This works for me

import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline

sns.factorplot(x='holiday',data=data,kind='count',size=5,aspect=1)
plt.savefig('holiday-vs-count.png')

edited Jan 29 '19 at 09:24

4b0

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answered Jan 27 '19 at 15:16

Niraj D Pandey

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tttthomasssss · Answer 8 · 2019-12-02T22:27:11.977

4

Its also possible to just create a matplotlib figure object and then use plt.savefig(...):

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd

df = sns.load_dataset('iris')
plt.figure() # Push new figure on stack
sns_plot = sns.pairplot(df, hue='species', size=2.5)
plt.savefig('output.png') # Save that figure

edited Dec 02 '19 at 22:27

answered Nov 14 '18 at 10:54

tttthomasssss

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Doesn't work at least with `displot` – Cornelius Roemer Nov 23 '21 at 21:22

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 03 '18 at 23:34

2

You would get an error for using sns.figure.savefig("output.png") in seaborn 0.8.1.

Instead use:

import seaborn as sns

df = sns.load_dataset('iris')
sns_plot = sns.pairplot(df, hue='species', size=2.5)
sns_plot.savefig("output.png")

answered Mar 03 '18 at 23:34

shekhar

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score -4 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 13 '18 at 20:25

-4

Just FYI, the below command worked in seaborn 0.8.1 so I guess the initial answer is still valid.

sns_plot = sns.pairplot(data, hue='species', size=3)
sns_plot.savefig("output.png")

edited Aug 13 '18 at 20:25

petezurich

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answered Apr 04 '18 at 20:39

Sudhi

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Although that code is working, it is not complete. The title says, 'How to save a Seaborn plot into a file' which is more general. Unluckily the proposed solution works with pairplot, but it raises an exception with other 'kinds' of plots. Hopefully in future releases there will a more unified way to obtain the 'figure' object from a seaborn plot. – Salvatore Cosentino May 07 '18 at 04:46

How to save a Seaborn plot into a file

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