Mixing vector and rasterized elements in svg produced with matplotlib

rasterized_svg.py

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

sns.set_style("white")

fig, axis = plt.subplots(1)
# all genes
axis.scatter(
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./10000) + np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=10000),
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./10000) + np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=10000),
  color="grey", s=3, alpha=0.3,
  rasterized=True)  # Here's the magic: these points will be rasterized in the svg while everything else will be vectorized
# diff genes
axis.scatter(
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./100) + -np.absolute(np.random.normal(0, 0.3, size=100)),
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./100) + np.absolute(np.random.normal(0, 0.3, size=100)),
  color="red", s=8, alpha=0.75)
axis.scatter(
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./100) + np.absolute(np.random.normal(0, 0.3, size=100)),
  np.arange(0, 8, 8./100) + -np.absolute(np.random.normal(0, 0.3, size=100)),
  color="blue", s=8, alpha=0.75)
sns.despine(fig)
fig.savefig("example.svg", bbox_inches="tight")