How to Add Title to a Plot in Matplotlib? (Code Examples with Output)

The matplotlib module in Python comes with a number of useful functions to help us plot data and customize the plots according to our requirements. In this tutorial, we will look at how to set the title of a plot in matplotlib with the help of some examples.

Using the matplotlib.pyplot.title() function

You can use the title() function available in maplotlib.pyplot to add (or set) title to a plot in matplotlib. The following is the syntax –

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# plot your data
plt.scatter(x, y)

# add title to your plot
plt.title("Plot Title")

Let’s now look at some examples of using the above syntax. We’ll plot the US dollar to Indian rupee conversion rates from 2011 to 2020 on a scatter plot and then add a title to it using the method mentioned above.

Example 1 – Add title to a plot

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# x values - years
x = [2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020]
# y values - 1 USD in INR
y = [46.67, 53.44, 56.57, 62.33, 62.97, 66.46, 67.79, 70.09, 70.39, 76.38]

# plot x and y on scatter plot
plt.scatter(x, y)

Output:

You can see that by default, there is no title set for the plot. Let’s now again plot the same plot but with a title using the matplotlib.pyplot.title() function.

# x values - years
x = [2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020]
# y values - 1 USD in INR
y = [46.67, 53.44, 56.57, 62.33, 62.97, 66.46, 67.79, 70.09, 70.39, 76.38]

# plot x and y on scatter plot
plt.scatter(x, y)
# set plot title
plt.title("USD to INR conversion rate")

Output:

The plot now has the title “USD to INR conversion rate”.

Example 2 – Horizontally align the title in matplotlib plot

By default, the title for a plot is “center” aligned. You can also horizontally align the title to “left” and “right” using the loc parameter of the matplotlib.pyplot.title() function.

Let’s plot the same plot as above but with the title aligned to the left.

# plot x and y on scatter plot
plt.scatter(x, y)
# set plot title
plt.title("USD to INR conversion rate", loc="left")

Output:

Now, let’s align the title to the right.

# plot x and y on scatter plot
plt.scatter(x, y)
# set plot title
plt.title("USD to INR conversion rate", loc="right")

Output:

Example 3 – Modify the font size of the plot title

You can also modify the font and its other properties in the title using the fontdict parameter.

# plot x and y on scatter plot
plt.scatter(x, y)
# set plot title
plt.title("USD to INR conversion rate", fontdict={'fontsize': 20, 'fontweight': 'bold'})

Output:

Here, we customized the fontsize and the fontweight of the title in the plot.

You might also be interested in –

• Change Font Size of elements in a Matplotlib plot
• Plot a Line Chart in Python with Matplotlib
• Create a Scatter Plot in Python with Matplotlib
• Change Background Color of Plot in Matplotlib
• Add Trendline to a Maplotlib Plot with Code and Output