# Makie - plotting Nanoseconds with custom tick labels

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** makie\
**Created:** [November 19, 2025, 11:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987 "2025-11-19T11:12:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 11:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/1 "2025-11-19T11:12:47Z")

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I’m trying to `scatter` an array of `Nanosecond` values, all on the order of 100ms±50us. When I plot these, I get y tick labels like `10.005cs`. Is there some way to get tick labels like `100.05ms` instead? I tried to use `ytickformat` to customize this, but no matter what I did, this ended up as `100.05mscs`, so with an additional centisecond text that shouldn’t be there..

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![juliohm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/juliohm/32/215266_2.png) [@juliohm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/juliohm)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 11:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/2 "2025-11-19T11:27:06Z")

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I have the same issue with length units. Plots where I pass “m” units become “dam = 10m” which is a length unit no one uses in practice.

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**Author:** ![sdanisch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sdanisch/32/1406_2.png) [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 1:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/3 "2025-11-19T13:32:11Z")

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This should get much better after: [Improve dim converts recipe compatibility, usability by ffreyer · Pull Request #5323 · MakieOrg/Makie.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/MakieOrg/Makie.jl/pull/5323)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/4 "2025-11-19T14:29:08Z")

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Thanks, that looks very promising! Is there something I can use until that is merged?

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**Author:** ![sdanisch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sdanisch/32/1406_2.png) [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/5 "2025-11-19T14:40:44Z")

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There’s an example in the UnitfulConversion docstring:

```julia-auto
uc = Makie.UnitfulConversion(u"m"; units_in_label=false)
scatter(1:4, [0.01u"km", 0.02u"km", 0.03u"km", 0.04u"km"]; axis=(dim2_conversion=uc, ylabel="y (m)"))

```

I think that should do it!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-plotting-nanoseconds-with-custom-tick-labels/133987/6 "2025-11-19T15:31:11Z")

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Ah, I’m not using Unitful, but the regular `Dates` stdlib 😅 Maybe I should switch..