Plotting with matplotlib results in a wider than expected graphic

[miaurii]

As the title says, I'm having an issue when rendering pixelfile data, the resulting plot has an extra wide space to the left that doesn't seem to go away even with tight_layout() being called. What could be the issue?

import lightkurve as lk
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

tpf_example = lk.search_targetpixelfile("KIC 7461601", author="Kepler", cadence='long', quarter=10).download()
tpf_example.plot()
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

[orionlee]

The issue is related to matploblib's interactive widget (it looks like either ipympl or notebook is used, based on the screenshot).

If you use static output instead (%matplotlib inline), the extra whitespace should be gone.

---

As an illustration, even if one uses the barebone plt.imshow to plot the pixels, when using interactive ipympl, the output also has extra whitespace.

%matplotlib ipympl

plt.imshow(tpf_example.flux[0].value, origin="lower")
plt.show()

In contrast, when using %matplotlib inline , the extra whitespace is gone.

[miaurii]

I know the problem isn't present when using static outputs, but I was hoping there'd be a way to overcome this, as I don't use notebook or ipyml. I am trying to save the images of multiple subplots automatically from running the code in Vscode but they also have the whitespace.

[orionlee]

I'd suggest you post the barebone problem (without lightkurve) to the forum of the specific matplotlib backend you're using.
If I'm not mistaken, the whitespace is there even when barebone plt.imshow() over a 2-D array is used.

[orionlee]

BTW, have you tried plt.savefig(filename, bbox_inches="tight"), given you're trying to save the images from codes?

https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.savefig.html