Introduction

With GridSpec you can create any combination of panels

The code

import numpy as np
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
from matplotlib.ticker import FuncFormatter

# this is a latex constant, don't change it.
pts_per_inch = 72.27
# write "\the\textwidth" (or "\showthe\columnwidth" for a 2 collumn text)
text_width_in_pts = 246.0
# inside a figure environment in latex, the result will be on the
# dvi/pdf next to the figure. See url above.
text_width_in_inches = text_width_in_pts / pts_per_inch
# make rectangles with a nice proportion
golden_ratio = 0.618
# figure.png or figure.eps will be intentionally larger, because it is prettier
inverse_latex_scale = 2
# when compiling latex code, use
# \includegraphics[scale=(1/inverse_latex_scale)]{figure}
# we want the figure to occupy 2/3 (for example) of the text width
fig_proportion = (3.0 / 3.0)
csize = inverse_latex_scale * fig_proportion * text_width_in_inches
# always 1.0 on the first argument
fig_size = (1.0 * csize, 1.1 * csize)
# find out the fontsize of your latex text, and put it here
text_size = inverse_latex_scale * 12
tick_size = inverse_latex_scale * 8
# learn how to configure:
# http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/users/customizing.html
params = {'backend': 'ps',
          'axes.labelsize': text_size,
          'legend.fontsize': tick_size,
          'legend.handlelength': 2.5,
          'legend.borderaxespad': 0,
          'xtick.labelsize': tick_size,
          'ytick.labelsize': tick_size,
          'font.family': 'serif',
          'font.size': text_size,
          # Times, Palatino, New Century Schoolbook,
          # Bookman, Computer Modern Roman
          'font.serif': ['Times'],
          'ps.usedistiller': 'xpdf',
          'text.usetex': True,
          'figure.figsize': fig_size,
          # include here any neede package for latex
          'text.latex.preamble': [r'\usepackage{amsmath}',
                                  ],
          }
plt.rcParams.update(params)
plt.ioff()
plt.clf()

# figsize accepts only inches.
fig = plt.figure(1, figsize=fig_size)
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 2, width_ratios=[1,0.5], height_ratios=[1,0.7,0.3])
gs.update(left=0.16, right=0.86,top=0.92, bottom=0.08, hspace=0.05, wspace=0.05)

subplot a

ax0 = plt.subplot(gs[0, :])

heaviside = lambda x: 0.5 * (np.sign(x) + 1)
x = np.arange(0, 10.01, 0.01)
ax0.plot(x, heaviside(x - 2), color='purple', lw=3)
ax0.text(2.5, 1.1, r"$\longleftarrow$ heaviside")

# y ticks as a percentage
ax0.set_yticks(np.arange(-0.5, 2.0, 0.5))
def to_percent(y, position):
    # Ignore the passed in position. This has the effect of scaling the default
    # tick locations.
    s = "{:+.0f}".format(y * 100)  # str(100 * y)
    # The percent symbol needs escaping in latex
    if matplotlib.rcParams['text.usetex'] is True:
        return s + r'$\%$'
    else:
        return s + '%'
# Create the formatter using the function to_percent. This multiplies all the
# default labels by 100, making them all percentages
formatter = FuncFormatter(to_percent)
# Set the formatter
ax0.yaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)
ax0.set_ylabel("heaviside, percentage")

# x ticks on top
ax0.axis([x.min(), x.max(), -0.5, 1.5])
ax0.xaxis.tick_top()
ax0.set_xlabel(r"x labels on top")
ax0.xaxis.set_label_position("top")

# transAxes makes position relative to axes
ax0.text(0.97, 0.97, r"\textbf{a}", transform=ax0.transAxes,
         horizontalalignment='right', verticalalignment='top')

# copy window with same x axis (y will be different)
ax0b = ax0.twinx()
ax0b.plot(x, np.tanh(x - 5), color="green", linewidth=3)
ax0b.axis([x.min(), x.max(), -1.1, 2.5])
ax0b.text(5.5, 0, r"tanh $\longrightarrow$")
ax0b.set_ylabel(r'tanh, offset label')
ax0b.yaxis.set_label_coords(1.1, 0.70)

subplot b

ax10 = plt.subplot(gs[1, 0])

x = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.01)
y = np.exp(-x)
ax10.plot(x, y, color="orange", lw=3)
ax10.set_yscale('log', basey=2)
ax10.set_yticks(2.0 ** np.arange(-7, 7, 3))
ax10.text(1.0, 1, r"$y=e^{-x}$")
ax10.set_xticks(np.arange(-5, 6, 2))
ax10.set_xticklabels(np.arange(-5, 6, 2), y=0.15)
ax10.get_yaxis().set_tick_params(direction='out')
ax10.set_ylabel("log scale base 2", labelpad=15)
ax10.text(0.97, 0.97, r"\textbf{b}", transform=ax10.transAxes,
          horizontalalignment='right', verticalalignment='top')

Text(0.97, 0.97, '\\textbf{b}')

subplot c

ax11 = plt.subplot(gs[1, 1])

x = np.arange(1.0, np.e ** 4, 0.01)
y = x ** (-0.8)
ax11.plot(x, y, color="cyan", lw=3)
ax11.text(2, 1, r"$y=x^{-0.8}$", fontsize=tick_size)
ax11.loglog(x, y, basex=np.e, basey=np.e)
xt = np.exp(np.arange(1, 4, 1))
yt = np.pi ** (np.arange(-3, 2, 1))
ax11.set_xticks(xt)
ax11.set_xticklabels(xt, y=0.15)
ax11.set_yticks(yt)


def ticks_e(y, pos):   # base e
    return r'$e^{:.0f}$'.format(np.log(y))


def ticks_pi(y, pos):  # base pi, why not?
    return r'$\pi^{%+.0f}$'%(np.log(y)/np.log(np.pi))


ax11.xaxis.set_major_formatter(FuncFormatter(ticks_e))
ax11.yaxis.set_major_formatter(FuncFormatter(ticks_pi))
ax11.yaxis.tick_right()
ax11.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
ax11.set_ylabel("right side", labelpad=10)
ax11.text(0.97, 0.97, r"\textbf{c}", transform=ax11.transAxes,
          horizontalalignment='right', verticalalignment='top')

Text(0.97, 0.97, '\\textbf{c}')

subplot d

ax20 = plt.subplot(gs[2, 0])

ax20.axis([0, 1, 0, 1])
ax20.set_xticks(np.arange(0, 1.1, 0.2))
ax20.set_xticklabels(["January", "February",
                      "March", "April",
                      "May", "June"],
                      rotation=30, horizontalalignment="right")
ax20.set_yticks([])
ax20.text(0.97, 0.97, r"\textbf{d}", transform=ax20.transAxes,
          horizontalalignment='right', verticalalignment='top')

Text(0.97, 0.97, '\\textbf{d}')

subplot e

ax21 = plt.subplot(gs[2, 1])

ax21.set_xticks([])
ax21.set_yticks([])
ax21.axis([0, 1, 0, 1])
ax21.text(0.97, 0.97, r"\textbf{e}", transform=ax21.transAxes,
          horizontalalignment='right', verticalalignment='top')

Text(0.97, 0.97, '\\textbf{e}')

%matplotlib notebook
fig.savefig("./python_figures/subplot-grid.png", dpi=300)
fig