title: Subplots size/tick spacing pyplot
body: <p>I have searched for similar problems and not found any, so I apologize.</p>
  
  <p>I have this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  
  yearlymean_gm = np.load('ts_globalmean_annualmean.npz')
  ts = yearlymean_gm['ts_aqct']
  
  time = np.arange(0., 45 , 1)
  plt.figure( figsize=(12, 5), dpi=80, facecolor='w', edgecolor='k' )
  
  ax = plt.subplot(3, 4, 1)
  
  data = ts[0, :]
  plt.plot(time, data)
  plt.title('Annual Mean Global Mean Temperature', fontsize=14)
  plt.xlabel('year', fontsize=12)
  plt.ylabel(modnames[0], fontsize=12)
  plt.xlim(0, 50), plt.ylim(275, 310)
  ax.set_xticks(time)
  ax.set_xticklabels(time, fontsize = 8)
  
  ax= plt.subplot(3, 4, 2)
  
  data = ts[1, :]
  plt.plot(time, data)
  plt.title('Annual Mean Global Mean Temperature', fontsize=14)
  plt.xlabel('year', fontsize=12)
  plt.ylabel(modnames[1], fontsize=12)
  plt.xlim(0, 50), plt.ylim(275, 310)
  ax.set_xticks(time)
  
  
  ax = plt.subplot(3, 4, 3)
  
  data = ts[2, :]
  plt.plot(time, data)
  plt.title('Annual Mean Global Mean Temperature', fontsize=14)
  plt.xlabel('year', fontsize=12)
  plt.ylabel(modnames[2], fontsize=12)
  plt.xlim(0, 50), plt.ylim(275, 310)
  ax.set_xticks(time)
  
  
  plt.tight_layout()
  plt.show()
  plt.close
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>There are currently 9 missing plots, as I'm sure you could guess, <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Q07Fc.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Q07Fc.jpg" alt="Here&#39;s what it&#39;s spitting out right now"></a></p>
  
  <p>Here are the three issues, to be clear:
  1) Each subplot is <em>tiny</em> compared to the size of the figure (and, you know... what's easily visible). Reducing the size of the figure doesn't make the subplots any more easily readable.</p>
  
  <p>2) They are too close together. I have some ideas about how to solve this, but I feel like I need to resolve 1) first.</p>
  
  <p>3) The axes are so small that the xticks appear all bunched up</p>
  
  <p>I've searched and found no explanation as to how to do this that's written at a level I can understand. The pyplot documentation is essentially gibberish to me.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance for any assistance (and if anyone can offer more general advice about what I'm doing in addition to specific advice about solving this problem, I would appreciate the edification).</p>