python - How to get pixel coordinates for Matplotlib-generated scatterplot?

Question

I use Matplotlib to generate PNG files of scatterplots. Now, for each scatterplot, in addition to a PNG file, I would also like to generate a list of pixel coordinates of the various points in the scatterplot.

The code I use to generate the PNG files for the scatterplots is basically like this:

from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.pyplot import setp
from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg

...

fig = Figure(figsize=(3, 3), dpi=100)
ax = fig.gca()
for (x, y), m, c in zip(points, markers, colors):
    ax.scatter(x, y, marker=m, c=c, s=SIZE, vmin=VMIN, vmax=VMAX)

# several assorted tweaks like ax.spines['top'].set_color('none'), etc.

setp(fig, 'facecolor', 'none')

# FigureCanvasAgg(fig).print_png(FILEPATH)

...(where the variables in UPPERCASE stand for settable parameters).

How can I also produce a list of (px, py) pairs of the pixel coordinates in the resulting PNG corresponding to the points in points?

[EDIT: removed some nonsense about imshow.]

[EDIT:

OK, here's what I finally came up with, based on Joe Kington's suggestions.

# continued from above...

cnvs = FigureCanvasAgg(fig)
fig.set_canvas(cnvs)
_, ht = cnvs.get_width_height()
pcoords = [(int(round(t[0])), int(round(ht - t[1]))) for t in
           ax.transData.transform(points)]
fig.savefig(FILEPATH, dpi=fig.dpi)

The resulting pixel coords (in pcoords) are pretty close to the correct values. In fact, the y coords are exactly right. The x coords are 1 or 2 pixels off, which is good enough for my purposes.

]

Answer 1

Doing this is fairly simple, but to understand what's going on, you'll need to read up a bit on matplotlib's transforms. The transformations tutorial is a good place to start.

At any rate, here's an example:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
points, = ax.plot(range(10), 'ro')
ax.axis([-1, 10, -1, 10])

# Get the x and y data and transform it into pixel coordinates
x, y = points.get_data()
xy_pixels = ax.transData.transform(np.vstack([x,y]).T)
xpix, ypix = xy_pixels.T

# In matplotlib, 0,0 is the lower left corner, whereas it's usually the upper 
# left for most image software, so we'll flip the y-coords...
width, height = fig.canvas.get_width_height()
ypix = height - ypix

print 'Coordinates of the points in pixel coordinates...'
for xp, yp in zip(xpix, ypix):
    print '{x:0.2f}{y:0.2f}'.format(x=xp, y=yp)

# We have to be sure to save the figure with it's current DPI
# (savfig overrides the DPI of the figure, by default)
fig.savefig('test.png', dpi=fig.dpi)

This yields:

Coordinates of the points in pixel coordinates...
125.09  397.09
170.18  362.18
215.27  327.27
260.36  292.36
305.45  257.45
350.55  222.55
395.64  187.64
440.73  152.73
485.82  117.82
530.91  82.91