How can I move a tick label only(without moving corresponding tick)?

Question

I\'m using matplotlib to generate a diagram, and I use set_ticks and set_ticklabels to mark out several important values on the x-axis. But some of

Answer 1

From your comment "..mark out several important values on the x-axis" I think you shouldn't be changing the xticks and labels, but rather add vertical lines with appropriate annotation.

This means the grid over which your data remains regular and allows you to colourise important points, you could also add the numeric values as well fairly easily.

Example

import pylab as py

# Plot a sinc function
delta=2.0
x=py.linspace(-10,10,100)
y=py.sinc(x-delta)

# Mark delta
py.axvline(delta,ls="--",color="r")
py.annotate(r"$\delta$",xy=(delta+0.2,-0.2),color="r",size=15)
py.plot(x,y)