I am making this 3D plot using matplotlib:
ax.plot_surface(x_surf, y_surf, np.reshape(npp, (max_temp/step, max_temp/step)), linewidth=0.2,cmap=palettable.colorbrewer.sequential.Greens_9.mpl_colormap) How can I make the axis label and axis names look more like this plot: 
As far as I understood, you want change the "axis label" and "axis names".
Unfortunately I could only do part of it (I hope that's something new to you and that someone else finds the second part of it):
I did some changes in http://matplotlib.org/examples/mplot3d/pathpatch3d_demo.html in order to obtain the images above
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from matplotlib.patches import Circle, PathPatch # register Axes3D class with matplotlib by importing Axes3D from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D import mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.art3d as art3d from matplotlib.text import TextPath from matplotlib.transforms import Affine2D def text3d(ax, xyz, s, zdir="z", size=None, angle=0, usetex=False, **kwargs): x, y, z = xyz if zdir == "y": xy1, z1 = (x, z), y elif zdir == "y": xy1, z1 = (y, z), x else: xy1, z1 = (x, y), z text_path = TextPath((0, 0), s, size=size, usetex=usetex) trans = Affine2D().rotate(angle).translate(xy1[0], xy1[1]) p1 = PathPatch(trans.transform_path(text_path), **kwargs) ax.add_patch(p1) art3d.pathpatch_2d_to_3d(p1, z=z1, zdir=zdir) fig = plt.figure() ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d') ax.tick_params(axis='x',direction='out', length=6, width=2, colors='r') text3d(ax, (4, -2, 0), "X-axis", zdir="z", size=.5, usetex=False, ec="none", fc="k") text3d(ax, (12, 4, 0), "Y-axis", zdir="z", size=.5, usetex=False, angle=.5*3.14159, ec="none", fc="k") text3d(ax, (12, 10, 4), "Z-axis", zdir="y", size=.5, usetex=False, angle=.5*3.14159, ec="none", fc="k") ax.set_xlim3d(0, 10) ax.set_ylim3d(0, 10) ax.set_zlim3d(0, 10) plt.show() I was expecting to find how to develop the second part of this problem at http://matplotlib.org/api/axes_api.html, but I did not find it yet.
Hope this helps
elif zdir == "y":