Help on function rc in module matplotlib:

Help on function rc in module matplotlib:

rc(group, **kwargs)
Set the current rc params. Group is the grouping for the rc, e.g.,
for ``lines.linewidth`` the group is ``lines``, for
``axes.facecolor``, the group is ``axes``, and so on. Group may
also be a list or tuple of group names, e.g., (*xtick*, *ytick*).
*kwargs* is a dictionary attribute name/value pairs, e.g.,::

rc('lines', linewidth=2, color='r')

sets the current rc params and is equivalent to::

rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 2
rcParams['lines.color'] = 'r'

The following aliases are available to save typing for interactive
users:

===== =================
Alias Property
===== =================
'lw' 'linewidth'
'ls' 'linestyle'
'c' 'color'
'fc' 'facecolor'
'ec' 'edgecolor'
'mew' 'markeredgewidth'
'aa' 'antialiased'
===== =================

Thus you could abbreviate the above rc command as::

rc('lines', lw=2, c='r')


Note you can use python's kwargs dictionary facility to store
dictionaries of default parameters. e.g., you can customize the
font rc as follows::

font = {'family' : 'monospace',
'weight' : 'bold',
'size' : 'larger'}

rc('font', **font) # pass in the font dict as kwargs

This enables you to easily switch between several configurations. Use
``matplotlib.style.use('default')`` or :func:`~matplotlib.rcdefaults` to
restore the default rc params after changes.