# Tutorials

Entry-point material for learning the API on synthetic data.

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:::{grid-item-card} Getting started
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/getting_started
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/getting_started.png

The fluent `.pl` API, layering, and styling on the in-memory `blobs`
dataset. Ideal first read.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Colour and palettes
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/color_and_palette
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/color_and_palette.png

How `color=` resolves, the v0.3.0 `groups` behaviour, and building
perceptually well-spaced or colourblind-safe palettes with
`make_palette` and `make_palette_from_data`.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Multi-panel colouring
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/multi_panel_color
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/multi_panel_color.png

Render several colourings at once by passing a list to `color=`,
scanpy-style, with per-panel legends/colourbars, shared `palette`/`cmap`,
and `ncols` grid control.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Speeding up rendering
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/performance
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/performance.png

Keep rendering fast on large data: automatic rasterization and scale
selection for images, and the `datashader` backend for large collections
of shapes and points.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Rendering elements as points
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/as_points
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/as_points.png

Draw shapes and label masks as one dot per centroid with `as_points=True`
— a fast overview that trades geometry for speed, including the matplotlib
→ datashader switch above ~50k elements.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Scalebars
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/scalebars
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/scalebars.png

Add a physical scalebar with `scalebar_dx`, choose units, and style
placement, colour, length and fonts through `scalebar_params`.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Marker shapes
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/marker_shapes
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/marker_shapes.png

Draw circle elements as circles, hexagons, or squares with `shape=`, and
render Visium spots as a hex grid with `shape="visium_hex"`.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Multichannel & fluorescence images
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/multichannel_images
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/multichannel_images.png

Render multiplexed and fluorescence images: select channels by name,
composite them with per-channel `palette` LUTs, fix heavy-tailed contrast
per channel, and label the composite with `channels_as_legend`.
:::

:::{grid-item-card} Cropping a plot
:link: /notebooks/tutorials/cropping
:link-type: doc
:img-top: /notebooks/_static/img/cropping.png

Zoom into a bounding box with `crop_coord` — every layer windowed at draw
time, images rasterized for the window only, and how it differs from
`bounding_box_query`.
:::

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```{toctree}
:hidden:
:maxdepth: 1

getting_started
color_and_palette
multi_panel_color
performance
as_points
scalebars
marker_shapes
multichannel_images
cropping
```