Simple axis tick label and tick directions#

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import mpl_toolkits.axisartist as axisartist


def setup_axes(fig, pos):
    ax = fig.add_subplot(pos, axes_class=axisartist.Axes)
    ax.set_yticks([0.2, 0.8])
    ax.set_xticks([0.2, 0.8])
    return ax


fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5, 2))
fig.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.4, bottom=0.3)

ax1 = setup_axes(fig, 121)
ax1.set_xlabel("ax1 X-label")
ax1.set_ylabel("ax1 Y-label")

ax1.axis[:].invert_ticklabel_direction()

ax2 = setup_axes(fig, 122)
ax2.set_xlabel("ax2 X-label")
ax2.set_ylabel("ax2 Y-label")

ax2.axis[:].major_ticks.set_tick_out(False)

plt.show()