How do get matplotlib pyplot to generate a chart for viewing / output to .png at a specific resolution?
For resolution, you can use the dpi (dots per inch) argument when creating a figure, or in the savefig() function. For high quality prints of graphics dpi=600 or more is recommended.
I'm fed up with manually creating graphs in excel and consequently, I'm trying to automate the process using Python to massage the .csv data into a workable form and matplotlib to plot the result.
Using matplotlib and generating them is no problem but I can't work out is how to set the aspect ration / resolution of the output.
Specifically, I'm trying to generate scatter plots and stacked area graphs. Everything I've tried seems to result in one or more of the following:

Cramped graph areas (small plot area covered with the legend, axes etc.).
The wrong aspect ratio.
Large spaces on the sides of the chart area (I want a very wide / not very tall image).

If anyone has some working examples showing how to achieve this result I'd be very grateful!