Unnecessarily large padding

%matplotlib widget introduces a lot of padding around the plotted image, emphasised when compared to %matplotlib inline I have tried various matplotlib calls, but can’t figure out a way to reduce it. In any case, I think it should be default be smaller than it is? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had to scroll a bit too much to get past very large images.

Two additional questions:

• what controls the increased size of the plot with widget?
• Can we reduce or change the size/shape of the “Figure 1” toolbar? I understand the need to close the interactive plot, but do we need the full toolbar?

Test code:

%matplotlib widget
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.figure()
plt.imshow(np.random.random((32,32)));

[thomasaarholt]

The padding seems particularly unnecessary with plt.subplots():

[martinRenou]

This should be more flexible now, as you can optionally hide the header/footer/toolbar. At some point we could improve the toolbar space by fixing https://github.com/matplotlib/ipympl/issues/299