Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a plotting library for Python which uses syntax similar to MATLAB. It is written and maintained primarily by John Hunter, and is distributed under a BSD-style license.

matplotlib
Example plot by matplotlib
Original author(s)	John Hunter
Stable release	0.87.7 / 2006-10-26
Repository	github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib
Engine	Cairo Anti-Grain Geometry
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Plotting
License	Own free licence
Website	[1]

The library provides a "pylab" interface which is procedural and based on a state machine, like OpenGL. There is also an OOP interface which has less thorough documentation and greater complexity.

Using the OOP interface, matplotlib plots can be embedded in applications using generic GUI toolkits like wxPython, Qt or GTK.

Compare to

• wxPython (module wx.lib.plot.py)
• Biggles [2]
• DISLIN
• Gnuplot-py [3]
• PyPlotter [4] – compatible with Jython
• PyX [5]
• ReportLab
• SciPy (modules plt and gplt)

External links

• Matplotlib Home Page
• Matplotlib Cookbook