Save multiple matplotlib figures in single PDF file using Python (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 26 Apr, 2025

In this article, we will discuss how to save multiple matplotlib figures in a single PDF file using Python. We can use the PdfPages class’s savefig() method to save multiple plots in a single pdf. Matplotlib plots can simply be saved as PDF files with the .pdf extension. This saves Matplotlib-generated figures in a single PDF file named Save multiple plots as PDF.pdf in the current working directory.

Installation

pip install matplotlib

Stepwise Implementation

To come up with a solution, we will follow a few steps.

Step 1: Import necessary files.

Python3

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

from matplotlib.backends.backend_pdf import PdfPages

Step 2: Set up the figure size and adjust the padding between and around the subplots.

Python3

plt.rcParams[ "figure.figsize" ] = [ 7.00 , 3.50 ]

plt.rcParams[ "figure.autolayout" ] = True

Step 3: We will consider 3 plots, so let’s name them fig1, fig2, and fig3 using plt.figure().

Python3

fig1 = plt.figure()

fig2 = plt.figure()

Fig3 = plt.figure()

Step 4: Plot the first line using the plt.plot() method.

Python3

plt.plot([ 17 , 45 , 7 , 8 , 7 ], color = 'orange' )

plt.plot([ 13 , 25 , 1 , 6 , 3 ], color = 'blue' )

plt.plot([ 22 , 11 , 2 , 1 , 23 ], color = 'green' )

Step 5: Create a function to save multiple images in a PDF file let’s say save_image().

Python3

def save_image(filename):

`` p = PdfPages(filename)

`` fig_nums = plt.get_fignums()

`` figs = [plt.figure(n) for n in fig_nums]

`` for fig in figs:

`` fig.savefig(p, format = 'pdf' )

`` p.close()

Complete Code

Python3

import matplotlib

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

from matplotlib.backends.backend_pdf import PdfPages

plt.rcParams[ "figure.figsize" ] = [ 7.00 , 3.50 ]

plt.rcParams[ "figure.autolayout" ] = True

fig1 = plt.figure()

plt.plot([ 17 , 45 , 7 , 8 , 7 ], color = 'orange' )

fig2 = plt.figure()

plt.plot([ 13 , 25 , 1 , 6 , 3 ], color = 'blue' )

Fig3 = plt.figure()

plt.plot([ 22 , 11 , 2 , 1 , 23 ], color = 'green' )

def save_image(filename):

`` p = PdfPages(filename)

`` fig_nums = plt.get_fignums()

`` figs = [plt.figure(n) for n in fig_nums]

`` for fig in figs:

`` fig.savefig(p, format = 'pdf' )

`` p.close()

filename = "multi_plot_image.pdf"

save_image(filename)

Output:

Now after you run the code you can see on your local directory that a pdf containing all three plots will be saved in a pdf named “multi_plot_image.pdf”.