get_sample_data from Matplotlib when inserting an image in a plot

Question

I'm working on a project and in my code (using python) I want to insert an image in one of the plots I create. I found out that I could insert an image by using the get_sample_data from Matplotlib but that the file(image) has to be in a specific directory (\\matplotlib\\mpl-data\\sample_data), the problem is that this project will have to be run on other computers, so I'd like to have the images of the plot in the same directory as I have the code (so to say, \\documents\\bs). I found that the answer is rc, but I'm not an expert in programming and I'm not so sure how that works...So I'd like to know if someone knows how I could solve my problem, or suggest me some references of where to look, as I could not find so much information about it.

Thanks is advanced!

As someone asked me, I attach the part of the code:

wave.plot(xstring,ystring,color='brown',linewidth=2.0)
xy = (0.5, 0.7)
left = get_sample_data("./lside_hand.png", asfileobj=False)
right = get_sample_data("./rside_hand.png", asfileobj=False)
arr_l=read_png(left)
arr_r=read_png(right)
imageboxl = OffsetImage(arr_l, zoom=0.1)
imageboxr = OffsetImage(arr_r, zoom=0.1)
ab_l = AnnotationBbox(imageboxl, xy,xybox=(-107., 0))
ab_r = AnnotationBbox(imageboxr, xy,xybox=(107., 0))
wave.add_artist(ab_l)
wave.add_artist(ab_r)

with wave being a plot already defined and that has no problems, and xstring and ystring also some data in an array. I have no problem with any of this things nor do I get an error. The problem I have is with the function get_sample_data, that whenever I save my file in another directory that is not sample_data gives me an error (the one saying that could not find the file).

To be more clear, now I put the files in that directory, and works, but if I send it to someone else, he/she would have to include those files in that directory, and that's a pitty... The plot I've created is:

Plot I created

Answer 1

You should read a portion of the image tutorial for matplotlib (link here ) as it will be very helpful for you. But briefly, to display an image, you first grab or generate the image and then use a method for generating the figure.

If the image is a png you can use matplotlib's imread() to get the image and pyplot's imshow() and show to display the image to your monitor

>>> import matplotlib.image as mpimg
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> image = mpimg.imread('/home/nana20/documents/bs/myimage.png')
>>> plt.imshow(image)   # Generates image
>>> plt.show()          # Sends the image to display (your monitor)