ure has number of optionsnotably figsize will guarantee the figure has certain size and aspect ratio if saved to disk figures in matplotlib also support numbering scheme (for exampleplt figure( )that mimics matlab you can get reference to the active figure using plt gcf(you can' make plot with blank figure you have to create one or more subplots using add_subplotin [ ]ax fig add_subplot( this means that the figure should be and we're selecting the first of subplots (numbered from if you create the next two subplotsyou'll end up with figure that looks like figure - in [ ]ax fig add_subplot( in [ ]ax fig add_subplot( figure - an empty matplotlib figure with subplots when you issue plotting command like plt plot([ - ])matplotlib draws on the last figure and subplot used (creating one if necessary)thus hiding the figure and subplot creation thusif we run the following commandyou'll get something like figure - in [ ]from numpy random import randn in [ ]plt plot(randn( cumsum()' --'the ' --is style option instructing matplotlib to plot black dashed line the objects returned by fig add_subplot above are axessubplot objectson which you can directly plot on the other empty subplots by calling each one' instance methodssee figure - brief matplotlib api primer www it-ebooks info