Python plotting libraries

Question

What alternatives are there to pylab for plotting in Python? In particular, I'm looking for something that doesn't use the stateful model that pylab does.

score 48 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 15 '21 at 16:42

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Plotly lets you make graphs using a Python API, matplotlib, and pandas. Their IPython gallery has some example scientific graphs with the Python scripts that generated them.

Here's a sample:

enter image description here

Some recent exciting open source offerings:

ggplot is based on R's ggplot2, with aesthetically pleasing defaults and a really concise api. wants to be a matplotlib killer

ggplot example

bokeh makes interactive (html canvas) plots. emphasis on interativity + handling big data

bokeh example

vega translates JSON "plot descriptions" into SVG or Canvas-based interactive plots, and vincent is a declarative interface for generating the JSON specifications.

_{(source: fastly.net)}

edited Aug 15 '21 at 16:42

Glorfindel

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answered Apr 29 '13 at 01:11

james howard

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ggplot isn't trying to be a matplotlib killer...in fact it is a matplotlib wrapper. – Julian Irwin Mar 26 '15 at 15:14
I wouldn't recommend Bokeh. Tried it and it renders into a browser. In my opinion, that's lame. Should've just rendered it into it's own window. Besides, the plot didn't show up on Firefox and Chromium. – Nav Dec 08 '19 at 12:22

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered May 27 '09 at 14:26

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There is a list of Python-based plotting tools on the Python wiki.

answered May 27 '09 at 14:26

las3rjock

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score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 14 '10 at 15:38

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You can always use the object-oriented framework for Matplotlib instead of the pylab interface.

edited Dec 14 '10 at 15:38

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 27 '09 at 14:21

Autoplectic

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 05 '12 at 07:23

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I was in need of gnuplot interface for Python 3 but have found nothing. So I have ported Gnuplot.py to it. See more info in the 'readme' of the [repository]. Hope this will help someone else in future.

answered Jul 05 '12 at 07:23

oblalex

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered May 27 '09 at 19:24

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I have used Gnuplot.py with great success.

answered May 27 '09 at 19:24

Paweł Polewicz

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score 2 · Answer 6 · edited May 26 '13 at 16:41

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There is also a old program for automating the reading, filtering, processing, interpolation and plot n-dimensional values from different sources (like libreOffice- or csv-files) and variable size: diaGrabber.

You have to use some simple python-commands to create a case. After this you can manipulate the graphical output in an interactive GUI.

edited May 26 '13 at 16:41

Dev2rights

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answered May 26 '13 at 16:22

karlB

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 05 '10 at 10:40

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You can use simple gplot

answered Sep 05 '10 at 10:40

atronoush

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pyla-gplot is a small stand alone single python script works with python 3 and above and Gnu plot. – atronoush Sep 08 '10 at 10:30
to get gplot from pyla visit http://pyla.codeplex.com/; It needs Python 3 and Gnuplot 4.0 and above. Gnuplot.py by this date is not compatible with Python 3.x – atronoush Sep 08 '10 at 10:32

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 08 '11 at 05:24

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MathGL is free (GPL) plotting library with large set of graphics types, and have Python interface too (also can use numpy arrays).

answered Jun 08 '11 at 05:24

abalakin

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Python plotting libraries

8 Answers8

Some recent exciting open source offerings:

Linked