Markerstyle

Markerstyle is a term used in data visualization to describe the appearance of point markers in plots. It is particularly associated with the MarkerStyle concept in plotting libraries, where a marker represents an individual data point on a chart. In Matplotlib, for example, MarkerStyle is a class that encapsulates the shape and fill behavior of markers.

A marker can be specified in several ways, such as a built-in shorthand symbol or a custom path. Common built-in shapes include circle, square, triangle, diamond, star, plus, and cross, among others. In addition to the shape, markers support fill behavior through a fill style, which can be full, left, right, or none, affecting how hollow or partially filled markers are rendered. Marker appearance is typically combined with color properties, such as markerfacecolor (fill color) and markeredgecolor (outline color), as well as the overall size controlled by markersize.

Usage in plotting is straightforward: a marker is selected by a marker value (for example, marker='o' for a circle) when drawing a line or scatter points. The MarkerStyle object can be created from a string or a Path, allowing access to its path and transform for advanced customization. markers can also be modified after creation via properties that adjust the marker, fill style, colors, and size.

In summary, markerstyle defines how data-point markers look in plots, offering a range of shapes and fill options, with support for both simple shorthand markers and customizable paths.