title: Hiding axis text in matplotlib plots
body: <p>I'm trying to plot a figure without tickmarks or numbers on either of the axes (I use axes in the traditional sense, not the matplotlib nomenclature!). An issue I have come across is where matplotlib adjusts the x(y)ticklabels by subtracting a value N, then adds N at the end of the axis.</p>
  
  <p>This may be vague, but the following simplified example highlights the issue, with '6.18' being the offending value of N:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  import random
  prefix = 6.18
  
  rx = [prefix+(0.001*random.random()) for i in arange(100)]
  ry = [prefix+(0.001*random.random()) for i in arange(100)]
  plt.plot(rx,ry,'ko')
  
  frame1 = plt.gca()
  for xlabel_i in frame1.axes.get_xticklabels():
      xlabel_i.set_visible(False)
      xlabel_i.set_fontsize(0.0)
  for xlabel_i in frame1.axes.get_yticklabels():
      xlabel_i.set_fontsize(0.0)
      xlabel_i.set_visible(False)
  for tick in frame1.axes.get_xticklines():
      tick.set_visible(False)
  for tick in frame1.axes.get_yticklines():
      tick.set_visible(False)
  
  plt.show()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The three things I would like to know are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>How to turn off this behaviour in the first place (although in most cases it is useful, it is not always!) I have looked through <code>matplotlib.axis.XAxis</code> and cannot find anything appropriate</p></li>
  <li><p>How can I make N disappear (i.e. <code>X.set_visible(False)</code>)</p></li>
  <li><p>Is there a better way to do the above anyway? My final plot would be 4x4 subplots in a figure, if that is relevant.</p></li>
  </ol>