How to plot images in subplots

Suppose I have 3 directories of .jpg files: dataset 1, dataset 2, dataset 3.

I would like to make a 5 by 3 subplots using matplotlib. For each row, the subplot shows the data from dataset 1, dataset 2 and dataset 3 in order. The expected format is like this:

plot1, plot2, plot3,

plot4.......

plot13, plot14, plot15.

How should I do that?

something like this:

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 10)) 
for data1, data2, data3 in dataset1, dataset2, dataset3"
....

• This example uses Path(...).glob() from pathlib to find all of the image paths in each directory, and unpack them in a list comprehension.
• matplotlib.pyplot.imread and matplotlib.axes.Axes.imshow are used to read and show the images, respectively.
• Tested in python 3.12.0, matplotlib 3.8.1

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from pathlib import Path

# create a list of directories
dirs = ['../Pictures/dataset1', '../Pictures/dataset2', '../Pictures/dataset3']

# extract the image paths into a list
files = [f for dir_ in dirs for f in list(Path(dir_).glob('*.jpg'))]

# create the figure
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=5, ncols=3, figsize=(10, 10), tight_layout=True)

# flatten the axis into a 1-d array to make it easier to access each axes
axes = axes.flatten()

# iterate through axes and associated file
for ax, file in zip(axes, files):
    
    # read the image in
    pic = plt.imread(file)

    # add the image to the axes
    ax.imshow(pic)

    # add an axes title; .stem is a pathlib method to get the filename
    ax.set(title=file.stem)

    # remove ticks / labels
    ax.axis('off')

# add a figure title
_ = fig.suptitle('Images from https://www.heroforge.com/', fontsize=18)

No Whitespace Between Images

• Based on this answer

# read in all the images, which are all the same size
images = [plt.imread(file) for file in files]

# get heights for images, the number must match the number for nrows
heights = [im[0].shape[0] for im in images[:5]]  # [images[0][0].shape[0]] * 5

# get widths for images, the number must match the number for ncols
widths = [im.shape[1] for im in images[:3]]  # [images[0].shape[1]] * 3

# set the figure width in inches
fig_width = 9

# calculate the figure width
fig_height = fig_width * sum(heights) / sum(widths)

# create the figure
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=5, ncols=3, figsize=(fig_width, fig_height), 
                         gridspec_kw={'wspace': 0, 'hspace': 0, 'left': 0, 'right': 1,
                                      'bottom': 0, 'top': 1, 'height_ratios': heights})

# flatten the axis into a 1-d array to make it easier to access each axes
axes = axes.flatten()

# iterate through the axes and associated images
for ax, image in zip(axes, images):

    # add the image to the axes
    ax.imshow(image)

    # remove ticks / labels
    ax.axis('off')