Discourage fontdict

timhoffm · timhoffm · commit c447d730f4cc · 2023-05-01T23:00:11.000+02:00
Closes #10293. `fontdict` is redundant API, but it's not bad enough to justify the user hassle of a deprecation. By discouraging we point the users away from `fontdict` so that the somewhat messy documentation state of `fontdict` is less of a concern.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ def set_title(self, label, fontdict=None, loc=None, pad=None, *, y=None,
             Text to use for the title
 
         fontdict : dict
+
+            .. admonition:: Discouraged
+
+               The use of *fontdict* is discouraged. You can pass all parameters as
+               individual keyword arguments, which is simpler if you only want to
+               modidfy one or two properties. If you already have a dict, use
+               dictionary-unpacking: ``set_title(..., **fontdict)``.
+
             A dictionary controlling the appearance of the title text,
             the default *fontdict* is::
 
@@ -641,6 +649,14 @@ def text(self, x, y, s, fontdict=None, **kwargs):
             The text.
 
         fontdict : dict, default: None
+
+            .. admonition:: Discouraged
+
+               The use of *fontdict* is discouraged. You can pass all parameters as
+               individual keyword arguments, which is simpler if you only want to
+               modidfy one or two properties. If you already have a dict, use
+               dictionary-unpacking: ``text(..., **fontdict)``.
+
             A dictionary to override the default text properties. If fontdict
             is None, the defaults are determined by `.rcParams`.
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axis.py b/lib/matplotlib/axis.py
@@ -1753,6 +1753,14 @@ def set_label_text(self, label, fontdict=None, **kwargs):
             Text string.
         fontdict : dict
             Text properties.
+
+            .. admonition:: Discouraged
+
+               The use of *fontdict* is discouraged. You can pass all parameters as
+               individual keyword arguments, which is simpler if you only want to
+               modidfy one or two properties. If you already have a dict, use
+               dictionary-unpacking: ``set_label_text(..., **fontdict)``.
+
         **kwargs
             Merged into fontdict.
         """
@@ -1913,6 +1921,14 @@ def set_ticklabels(self, labels, *, minor=False, fontdict=None, **kwargs):
             If True, set minor ticks instead of major ticks.
 
         fontdict : dict, optional
+
+            .. admonition:: Discouraged
+
+               The use of *fontdict* is discouraged. You can pass all parameters as
+               individual keyword arguments, which is simpler if you only want to
+               modidfy one or two properties. If you already have a dict, use
+               dictionary-unpacking: ``set_ticklabels(..., **fontdict)``.
+
             A dictionary controlling the appearance of the ticklabels.
             The default *fontdict* is::
 
