Axes class - set explicitly size (width/height) of axes in given units

The axes size is determined by the figure size and the figure spacings, which can be set using figure.subplots_adjust(). In reverse this means that you can set the axes size by setting the figure size taking into acount the figure spacings:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def set_size(w,h, ax=None):
    """ w, h: width, height in inches """
    if not ax: ax=plt.gca()
    l = ax.figure.subplotpars.left
    r = ax.figure.subplotpars.right
    t = ax.figure.subplotpars.top
    b = ax.figure.subplotpars.bottom
    figw = float(w)/(r-l)
    figh = float(h)/(t-b)
    ax.figure.set_size_inches(figw, figh)

fig, ax=plt.subplots()

ax.plot([1,3,2])

set_size(5,5)

plt.show()

It appears that Matplotlib has helper classes that allow you to define axes with a fixed size Demo fixed size axes