Customizing Lines and Markers

Now that you know how to use plt.plot() to draw basic lines, let's make those plots more expressive by customizing their appearance.

Matplotlib allows you to style the line, the color, and the marker — the symbol used to highlight each data point.

These customizations help differentiate multiple lines and improve the clarity of your visualizations.

Use the linestyle argument to change the look of the line:

• '-': solid (default)
• '--': dashed
• ':': dotted
• '-.': dash-dot

Change the color using the color argument:

• Named colors: "red", "blue", "green"
• Single-letter codes: 'r', 'b', 'g'
• Hex codes: "#FF5733" for custom shades

To mark each data point on the line, use the marker argument:

• 'o': circle
• 's': square
• '^': triangle
• 'x': x-mark

You can even combine all three features into one concise string:

For example, "g--o" means: green dashed line with circle markers.