Change subplots title position/orientation in Plotly Python

Question

I need to change subplot title in python plotly, namely, rotate it by 90 degrees. I tried hard but without any success.

Here is my code

import plotly.offline as pyo
import plotly.graph_objs as go
from plotly import tools

trace1 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[10, 11, 12]
)
trace2 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[100, 110, 120],
)
trace3 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[1000, 1100, 1200],
)

fig = tools.make_subplots(rows=1, cols=3,
                          shared_xaxes=True, shared_yaxes=True,
                          vertical_spacing=0.001,
                          subplot_titles = ('first_title', 'second_title', 'third_title'))

fig.append_trace(trace1, 1, 1)
fig.append_trace(trace2, 1, 2)
fig.append_trace(trace3, 1, 3)

fig['layout'].update(height=600, width=600, title='main_title')

pyo.plot(fig, filename='file.html')

So, I want to rotate 'first_title' , 'second_title' and 'third_title' by 90 degrees so that they do not overlap at each other. Is it possible to tackle this problem?

Answer 1

you can simply add this code before the pyo.plot(fig, filename='file.html') line:

for annotation in fig['layout']['annotations']: 
    annotation['textangle']=-90

However, this will cause subplot titles overlapping the main title, so I suggest you to remove it. This is the final code:

import plotly.offline as pyo
import plotly.graph_objs as go
from plotly import tools

trace1 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[10, 11, 12]
)
trace2 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[100, 110, 120],
)
trace3 = go.Bar(
    x=[1, 2, 3],
    y=[1000, 1100, 1200],
)

fig = tools.make_subplots(rows=1, cols=3,
                          shared_xaxes=True, shared_yaxes=True,
                          vertical_spacing=0.001,
                          subplot_titles = ('first_title', 'second_title', 'third_title'))

fig.append_trace(trace1, 1, 1)
fig.append_trace(trace2, 1, 2)
fig.append_trace(trace3, 1, 3)

fig['layout'].update(height=600, width=600, title='')

# rotate all the subtitles of 90 degrees
for annotation in fig['layout']['annotations']: 
        annotation['textangle']=-90

pyo.plot(fig, filename='file.html')

And this is what you get:

Answer 2

This answer is linked to Can you alter a subplot title location in plotly? which seeks an answer to getting the subplot tiles aligned correctly.

I had a similar problem with subplot titles on a 2 x 2 grid. The answer was simply

fig.update_annotations(yshift=20)

Answer 3

You could also update text angles in one line

fig.update_annotations(textangle=-90)