Impossible to configure minor/major grid line style independently in rcParams · Issue #13919 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

Hi,

As far as I can see, the only customization to the grid that is possible right now in rcParams is:

mpl.rcParams['grid.color']  
mpl.rcParams['grid.alpha']
mpl.rcParams['grid.linewidth']
mpl.rcParams['grid.linestyle']

Is it possible to change these keys so that it is possible to configure minor and major grid line styles independently from each other?

Something like:

mpl.rcParams['grid.minor.color']  
mpl.rcParams['grid.minor.alpha']
mpl.rcParams['grid.minor.linewidth']
mpl.rcParams['grid.minor.linestyle']
mpl.rcParams['grid.major.color']  
mpl.rcParams['grid.major.alpha']
mpl.rcParams['grid.major.linewidth']
mpl.rcParams['grid.major.linestyle']

There are no separate parameters for major/minor grid properties in rcParams.

You can currently only configure them programmatically.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.ticker import MultipleLocator

x = np.arange(10)

ax = plt.gca()
ax.plot(x, x**2)
ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(MultipleLocator(0.5))
ax.grid(which='both')
ax.tick_params(which='minor', grid_linestyle='--')

I was just looking for exactly this feature. I already did it programmatically before, but as I have a large number of different plots with major and minor gridlines, this is quite inconvenient.

Looking forward such an option in rcParams!

Yes, PLEASE. I'm with @NGJROMO.
The programmatic way shown above is too cumbersome (and, is there a way to also set line width, color, and alpha?).

This is back to one year ago. Is there any way it can be implemented soon?

Here is what I want:

Thanks.

I'm surprised that the settings are not automatically mirrored in the style sheet & rcParams. In fact, I would have thought that all of the defaults would be set up in rcParams & that would drive everything else.

Bumping this issue -- I've found it unwieldy to copy and paste the same code snippet to get a fixed style that I almost always want, and would also appreciate support for differently styled major and minor gridlines via rc params.

A motivated user could always write a PR for this. https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/contributing.html However, be aware that new rcparams face a relatively high bar for acceptance.

One can also write their own styling wrapper if they are always doing this.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 

my_style_subplots(*arg, **kwargs):
    fig, axs = plt.subplots(*args, **kwargs)
    for ax in axs.flat:
       ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(MultipleLocator(0.5))
       ax.grid(which='both')
       ax.tick_params(which='minor', grid_linestyle='--')
    return fig, axs

import mystyles as myplt

fig, ax = mplt.subplots(3, 2, sharedx=True)

Sorry but above answer isn't satisfactory IMHO. That is not what we are asking. Also, it forces ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(MultipleLocator(0.5)), which I would not want in general.

This is a straightforward request and not hard to implement. It's from 2019 for crying out loud.

This is a straightforward request and not hard to implement. It's from 2019 for crying out loud.

Matplotlib is a volunteer organization and PRs are always welcome!

I agree with @neutrinonerd3333, and am in the same boat as him and @zertrin.

One other thing that I think is related, is the inability to specify tick label font in rcParams. I am able to specify the overall general font as Helvetica for example, successfully changing the font of everything in my generated plots, however this does not change the font of the tick labels (they remain in a serif font..)! I thought I could specify this in the rcParams (with something like font..ticklabel.family: sans-serif, font.ticklabel.serif: Helvetica), but it turns out this is another limitation that must be done programmatically... making each of my plots even more cumbersome and repetitive to code.

This issue has been marked "inactive" because it has been 365 days since the last comment. If this issue is still present in recent Matplotlib releases, or the feature request is still wanted, please leave a comment and this label will be removed. If there are no updates in another 30 days, this issue will be automatically closed, but you are free to re-open or create a new issue if needed. We value issue reports, and this procedure is meant to help us resurface and prioritize issues that have not been addressed yet, not make them disappear. Thanks for your help!

This is a highly requested feature. -> keep

any updates on this?

Still need this feature

Good first issue - notes for new contributors

This issue is suited to new contributors because it does not require understanding of the
Matplotlib internals. To get started, please see our contributing
guide.

We do not assign issues. Check the Development section in the sidebar for linked pull
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Maybe some extra tagging will help, but someone who wants this feature needs to propose a PR for it to get implemented.

As a word of warning: This is not as trivial as it sounds. We want to maintain backward-compatibility, i.e. if somebody changes th grid.* parameters, they should still affect both grids - unless of course they specify grid.minor.* explicitly. This possibly needs some hierachial lookup/dependency between the keys, which is not a concept we have in rcParams so far.

Possible fix for issue matplotlib#13919

Support individual styling of major and minor grid through rcParams (#…

@QuLogic @timhoffm The new options, like grid.major.color, don't show up in "The default matplotlibrc file" in the docs. Is this expected?

@carlosgmartin As you can see from the milestone assignment, this will be released in 3.11. The stable docs are currently 3.10.7. You can find the dev version of the docs at https://matplotlib.org/devdocs/users/explain/customizing.html

Impossible to configure minor/major grid line style independently in rcParams · Issue #13919 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

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Impossible to configure minor/major grid line style independently in rcParams · Issue #13919 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

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Impossible to configure minor/major grid line style independently in rcParams #13919

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timhoffm commented on Apr 14, 2019

zertrin commented on Apr 15, 2019

dgua commented on Apr 8, 2020

hjstein commented on Apr 21, 2020

neutrinonerd3333 commented on Nov 23, 2021

jklymak commented on Nov 23, 2021

dgua commented on Nov 23, 2021

jklymak commented on Nov 23, 2021

DanHallatt commented on Feb 5, 2022

github-actions commented on Jun 12, 2023

timhoffm commented on Jun 12, 2023

YamenMejri commented on Dec 16, 2023

nNeD5 commented on Apr 17, 2024

github-actions commented on Apr 17, 2024

Good first issue - notes for new contributors

jklymak commented on Apr 17, 2024

timhoffm commented on Apr 19, 2024

carlosgmartin commented on Nov 15, 2025

timhoffm commented on Nov 15, 2025

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