Plotting Themes

PyVista plotting parameters can be controlled on a plot by plot basis or through a global theme, making it possible to control mesh colors and styles through one global configuration.

See also

Global Configuration

pv.global_theme is one of two global configuration objects. The other, pv.global_config, holds the core non-plotting settings.

The default theme parameters in PyVista can be accessed and displayed with:

>>> import pyvista as pv
>>> pv.global_theme

Default plotting parameters can be accessed individually by their attribute names:

>>> pv.global_theme.color = 'lightblue'

Here’s an example plot of the Stanford Bunny using default plotting parameters:

>>> import pyvista as pv
>>> from pyvista import examples
>>> bunny = examples.download_bunny()
>>> bunny.plot(cpos='xy')

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

These parameters can then be modified globally with:

>>> pv.global_theme.color = 'red'
>>> pv.global_theme.background = 'white'
>>> pv.global_theme.axes.show = False

Now, the mesh will be plotted with the new global parameters:

>>> bunny.plot(cpos='xy')

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

This is identical to plotting the mesh with the following parameters:

>>> bunny.plot(
...     cpos='xy', color='red', background='white', show_axes=False
... )

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Creating a Custom Theme

You can customize a theme based on one of the built-in themes and then apply it globally with:

# Create a theme based off the DocumentTheme

my_theme = pv.plotting.themes.DocumentTheme()
my_theme.cmap = 'jet'
my_theme.show_edges = True

# Apply it globally

pv.global_theme.load_theme(my_theme)

Alternatively, you can save the theme to disk to be used later with:

my_theme.save('my_theme.json')

And then subsequently loaded in a new session of pyvista with:

pv.global_theme.load_theme('my_theme.json')

Default Interactor Styles

Themes can also control the default interactor style used by new plotters. Built-in styles use the same names as the corresponding enable_*_style methods.

import pyvista as pv

pv.global_theme.interactor_style = 'terrain_style'

Custom interactor styles can be registered by downstream packages and used the same way once they are installed or registered at runtime.

Theme API

See Themes for the full API definition.