.. note::
    :class: sphx-glr-download-link-note

    Click :ref:`here <sphx_glr_download_gallery_images_contours_and_fields_interpolation_methods.py>` to download the full example code
.. rst-class:: sphx-glr-example-title

.. _sphx_glr_gallery_images_contours_and_fields_interpolation_methods.py:


=================================
Interpolations for imshow/matshow
=================================

This example displays the difference between interpolation methods for
:meth:`~.axes.Axes.imshow` and :meth:`~.axes.Axes.matshow`.

If `interpolation` is None, it defaults to the ``image.interpolation``
:doc:`rc parameter </tutorials/introductory/customizing>`.
If the interpolation is ``'none'``, then no interpolation is performed
for the Agg, ps and pdf backends. Other backends will default to ``'nearest'``.

For the Agg, ps and pdf backends, ``interpolation = 'none'`` works well when a
big image is scaled down, while ``interpolation = 'nearest'`` works well when
a small image is scaled up.



.. code-block:: python


    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    import numpy as np

    methods = [None, 'none', 'nearest', 'bilinear', 'bicubic', 'spline16',
               'spline36', 'hanning', 'hamming', 'hermite', 'kaiser', 'quadric',
               'catrom', 'gaussian', 'bessel', 'mitchell', 'sinc', 'lanczos']

    # Fixing random state for reproducibility
    np.random.seed(19680801)

    grid = np.random.rand(4, 4)

    fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=3, ncols=6, figsize=(9.3, 6),
                            subplot_kw={'xticks': [], 'yticks': []})

    fig.subplots_adjust(left=0.03, right=0.97, hspace=0.3, wspace=0.05)

    for ax, interp_method in zip(axs.flat, methods):
        ax.imshow(grid, interpolation=interp_method, cmap='viridis')
        ax.set_title(str(interp_method))

    plt.tight_layout()
    plt.show()




.. image:: /gallery/images_contours_and_fields/images/sphx_glr_interpolation_methods_001.png
    :class: sphx-glr-single-img




------------

References
""""""""""

The use of the following functions and methods is shown
in this example:



.. code-block:: python


    import matplotlib
    matplotlib.axes.Axes.imshow
    matplotlib.pyplot.imshow







.. _sphx_glr_download_gallery_images_contours_and_fields_interpolation_methods.py:


.. only :: html

 .. container:: sphx-glr-footer
    :class: sphx-glr-footer-example



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download

     :download:`Download Python source code: interpolation_methods.py <interpolation_methods.py>`



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download

     :download:`Download Jupyter notebook: interpolation_methods.ipynb <interpolation_methods.ipynb>`


.. only:: html

 .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-signature

    Keywords: matplotlib code example, codex, python plot, pyplot
    `Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery
    <https://sphinx-gallery.readthedocs.io>`_
