Mix PyGMT and matplotlib

[seisman]

Originally posted in https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/mixing-pygmt-and-matplotlib/3648

Is there a way to put a matplotlib axis next to a pyGMT map? For example in a 2-column setup with the matplotlib plot on the left and pyGMT map on the right. I can imagine that I could generate the matplotlib figure, export it as an eps and then dump it into a pyGMT subplot (or shift x and y) with the “image” command, but that seems a little kludgy. Yes, I could also re-write the matplotlib function using pyGMT commands, but I’d rather not. I’ve also looked at putting a pyGMT figure into a matplotlib subfigure but that doesn’t seem to work either.

I don't have an answer yet, but the idea is interesting.

[weiji14]

Copying from an old thread:

Regarding inserting plots in matplotlib, the problem is that the figure would be a raster. We could get a PNG returned by PyGMT and insert that as matplotlib axis. The problem is that it looks bad when exporting the figure later on. This was my original idea for the display mechanism but I gave up on it at the time. The "best" way to do this would be to translate postscript to matplotlib's vector format but I doubt anyone would be willing to do it. I'm not even sure it's possible since GMT does a lot of coding in the postscript itself.

If anyone is can find a way of inserting raster into matplotlib in a way that it looks good, I'd be happy to implement this in PyGMT. Mixing GMT and matplotlib in the same figure would be a dream!

Originally posted by @leouieda in #366 (comment)