diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/deprecations.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/deprecations.rst
index 3837598f0852..dae361ec5f6b 100644
--- a/doc/api/next_api_changes/deprecations.rst
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/deprecations.rst
@@ -150,3 +150,12 @@ and containment checks) via `.Line2D.set_picker` is deprecated.  Use
 The ``on_mappable_changed`` and ``update_bruteforce`` methods of
 `~matplotlib.colorbar.Colorbar` are deprecated; both can be replaced by calls
 to `~matplotlib.colorbar.Colorbar.update_normal`.
+
+``OldScalarFormatter``, ``IndexFormatter`` and ``DateIndexFormatter``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+These formatters are deprecated.  Their functionality can be implemented using
+e.g. `.FuncFormatter`.
+
+``OldAutoLocator``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+This ticker is deprecated.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/dates.py b/lib/matplotlib/dates.py
index fca6664ab21d..32de2a7839a2 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/dates.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/dates.py
@@ -604,6 +604,7 @@ def set_tzinfo(self, tz):
         self.tz = tz
 
 
+@cbook.deprecated("3.3")
 class IndexDateFormatter(ticker.Formatter):
     """Use with `.IndexLocator` to cycle format strings by index."""
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_ticker.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_ticker.py
index 5a3ed56a46c8..4e741b086a1b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_ticker.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_ticker.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 import matplotlib
+from matplotlib import cbook
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import matplotlib.ticker as mticker
 
@@ -457,7 +458,8 @@ class TestIndexFormatter:
                                           (2, 'label2'),
                                           (2.5, '')])
     def test_formatting(self, x, label):
-        formatter = mticker.IndexFormatter(['label0', 'label1', 'label2'])
+        with cbook._suppress_matplotlib_deprecation_warning():
+            formatter = mticker.IndexFormatter(['label0', 'label1', 'label2'])
         assert formatter(x) == label
 
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
index 856e280a04ad..b1c73477f87e 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/ticker.py
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ def _set_locator(self, locator):
         pass
 
 
+@cbook.deprecated("3.3")
 class IndexFormatter(Formatter):
     """
     Format the position x to the nearest i-th label where ``i = int(x + 0.5)``.
@@ -322,13 +323,10 @@ def __call__(self, x, pos=None):
 
 
 class NullFormatter(Formatter):
-    """
-    Always return the empty string.
-    """
+    """Always return the empty string."""
+
     def __call__(self, x, pos=None):
-        """
-        Returns an empty string for all inputs.
-        """
+        # docstring inherited
         return ''
 
 
@@ -428,6 +426,7 @@ def __call__(self, x, pos=None):
         return self.fmt.format(x=x, pos=pos)
 
 
+@cbook.deprecated("3.3")
 class OldScalarFormatter(Formatter):
     """
     Tick location is a plain old number.
@@ -2867,6 +2866,7 @@ def tick_values(self, vmin, vmax):
                                   '%s type.' % type(self))
 
 
+@cbook.deprecated("3.3")
 class OldAutoLocator(Locator):
     """
     On autoscale this class picks the best MultipleLocator to set the