Text alignment in a Matplotlib legend

Text alignment in a Matplotlib legend allows you to control how the legend text is positioned. You can set horizontal alignment using the set_ha() method on legend text objects.

Basic Legend Text Alignment

Here's how to align legend text to the left ?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = [7.50, 3.50]
plt.rcParams["figure.autolayout"] = True

x = np.linspace(-5, 5, 100)

plt.plot(x, np.sin(x), label="$y=sin(x)$")
plt.plot(x, np.cos(x), label="$y=cos(x)$")

legend = plt.legend(loc='upper right')

for t in legend.get_texts():
    t.set_ha('left')

plt.show()

Different Alignment Options

You can use various horizontal alignment values ?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(15, 4))

x = np.linspace(-2, 2, 50)

alignments = ['left', 'center', 'right']
positions = ['upper left', 'upper center', 'upper right']

for i, (align, pos) in enumerate(zip(alignments, positions)):
    axes[i].plot(x, np.sin(x), label="$y=sin(x)$")
    axes[i].plot(x, np.cos(x), label="$y=cos(x)$")
    
    legend = axes[i].legend(loc=pos)
    
    for t in legend.get_texts():
        t.set_ha(align)
    
    axes[i].set_title(f'Alignment: {align}')

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Alignment Options

Customizing Legend Appearance

You can combine text alignment with other legend styling options ?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)

plt.plot(x, np.sin(x), label="Sine wave", linewidth=2)
plt.plot(x, np.cos(x), label="Cosine wave", linewidth=2)

legend = plt.legend(loc='upper right', frameon=True, fancybox=True, shadow=True)

# Set text alignment and styling
for t in legend.get_texts():
    t.set_ha('left')
    t.set_fontsize(10)

plt.title('Legend with Left-Aligned Text')
plt.grid(True, alpha=0.3)
plt.show()

Conclusion

Use set_ha() method on legend text objects to control horizontal alignment. Combine with other styling options like frameon, shadow, and fancybox for better visual appearance.