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The foundational library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in Python. Highly customizable and the industry standard for publication-quality figures. Use for 2D plotting, scientific data visualization, heatmaps, contours, vector fields, multi-panel figures, LaTeX-formatted plots, custom visualization tools, and plotting from NumPy arrays or Pandas DataFrames.
npx skill4agent add tondevrel/scientific-agent-skills matplotlibplt.subplotsax.set_titleax.legendplt.savefigmatplotlib.colors| Interface | Method | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Object-Oriented (OO) | | Recommended. Best for complex, reproducible plots. |
| Pyplot (State-based) | | Quick interactive checks. Avoid for scripts/modules. |
pip install matplotlibimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from matplotlib import gridspecimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y = np.sin(x)
# 1. Create Figure and Axis objects
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 5))
# 2. Plot data
ax.plot(x, y, label='Sine Wave', color='tab:blue', linewidth=2)
# 3. Customize
ax.set_xlabel('Time (s)')
ax.set_ylabel('Amplitude')
ax.set_title('Oscillation Example')
ax.legend()
ax.grid(True, linestyle='--')
# 4. Show or Save
plt.show()
# fig.savefig('plot.pdf', dpi=300, bbox_inches='tight')ax.method()bbox_inches='tight'plt.close('all').pdf.svgtab10viridisplt.ax.plt.show()fig.savefig()ax.legend(loc='best')plt.rcParams.update({'font.size': 12})magmainferno# ❌ BAD: Mixing interfaces (State-based + OO)
plt.figure()
ax = plt.gca()
plt.plot(x, y) # Confusing state
ax.set_title('Test')
# ✅ GOOD: Consistent OO interface
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x, y)
ax.set_title('Test')
# ❌ BAD: Overlapping subplots
fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2)
# Plots look squashed and titles overlap
# ✅ GOOD: Use constrained_layout or tight_layout
fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2, constrained_layout=True)fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x, y, 'o-', color='red', markersize=4, alpha=0.7)
# Explicitly setting limits
ax.set_xlim(0, 10)
ax.set_ylim(-1.5, 1.5)
# Controlling Ticks
ax.set_xticks([0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10])
ax.set_xticklabels(['Start', '1/4', 'Mid', '3/4', 'End'])
# Spines (Box around the plot)
ax.spines['top'].set_visible(False)
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
# Adding text and arrows
ax.annotate('Local Max', xy=(1.5, 1), xytext=(3, 1.2),
arrowprops=dict(facecolor='black', shrink=0.05))# Simple 2x2 grid
fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(10, 10))
axs[0, 0].plot(x, y) # Top left
axs[1, 1].scatter(x, y) # Bottom right
# Complex grid (Uneven sizes)
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(2, 2, width_ratios=[2, 1], height_ratios=[1, 2])
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 0]) # Top left (large width)
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 1]) # Top right
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1, :]) # Bottom spanning all columnsdata = np.random.rand(10, 10)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
im = ax.imshow(data, cmap='viridis', interpolation='nearest')
# Add colorbar
cbar = fig.colorbar(im, ax=ax, label='Intensity [a.u.]')
# Proper alignment of colorbar
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1 import make_axes_locatable
divider = make_axes_locatable(ax)
cax = divider.append_axes("right", size="5%", pad=0.05)
fig.colorbar(im, cax=cax)# Histogram
data = np.random.normal(0, 1, 1000)
ax.hist(data, bins=30, density=True, alpha=0.6, color='g', edgecolor='black')
# Error bars
x = np.arange(10)
y = x**2
yerr = np.sqrt(y)
ax.errorbar(x, y, yerr=yerr, fmt='o', capsize=5, label='Data with noise')from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
X = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
Y = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
R = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
Z = np.sin(R)
surf = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, cmap='coolwarm', linewidth=0, antialiased=False)
fig.colorbar(surf, shrink=0.5, aspect=5)# Global styling
plt.style.use('seaborn-v0_8-paper') # or 'ggplot', 'bmh'
# LaTeX for labels
plt.rcParams.update({
"text.usetex": True,
"font.family": "serif",
"font.serif": ["Computer Modern Roman"],
"axes.labelsize": 14,
})
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x, y)
ax.set_xlabel(r'$\alpha_{i} + \beta \sin(\omega t)$') # LaTeX stringdef plot_comparison(datasets, labels):
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 6))
colors = plt.cm.viridis(np.linspace(0, 1, len(datasets)))
for data, label, color in zip(datasets, labels, colors):
ax.plot(data['x'], data['y'], label=label, color=color, lw=1.5)
ax.fill_between(data['x'], data['y']-data['std'], data['y']+data['std'],
alpha=0.2, color=color)
ax.set_title('Experiment Results Comparison')
ax.legend(frameon=False)
return fig, ax# Use this in a Jupyter environment or script
plt.ion() # Interactive mode on
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
line, = ax.plot([], [])
for i in range(100):
new_data = np.random.rand(10)
line.set_data(np.arange(len(new_data)), new_data)
ax.relim()
ax.autoscale_view()
fig.canvas.draw()
fig.canvas.flush_events()
plt.pause(0.1)import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.rand(10, 4), columns=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])
corr = df.corr()
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
im = ax.imshow(corr, cmap='RdBu_r', vmin=-1, vmax=1)
ax.set_xticks(np.arange(len(corr.columns)), labels=corr.columns)
ax.set_yticks(np.arange(len(corr.index)), labels=corr.index)
# Loop over data dimensions and create text annotations.
for i in range(len(corr.index)):
for j in range(len(corr.columns)):
text = ax.text(j, i, f"{corr.iloc[i, j]:.2f}",
ha="center", va="center", color="black")# 1. Use 'agg' backend for non-interactive rendering
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('Agg')
# 2. Use PathCollection for scatter plots with many points
ax.scatter(x, y, s=1) # slow for 1M points
# 3. Use marker='' (none) and only lines for speed
ax.plot(x, y, marker=None)
# 4. Decimate data before plotting
ax.plot(x[::10], y[::10]) # Plot every 10th point# ❌ Problem: Dates look like a black blob
# ✅ Solution: Use AutoDateLocator and AutoDateFormatter
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(dates, values)
ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(mdates.MonthLocator())
ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(mdates.DateFormatter('%Y-%m'))
fig.autofmt_xdate() # Rotates labels# ❌ Problem: Calling ax.legend() twice replaces the first one
# ✅ Solution: Manually add the first artist back
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
line1, = ax.plot([1, 2], [1, 2], label='Line 1')
line2, = ax.plot([1, 2], [2, 1], label='Line 2')
first_legend = ax.legend(handles=[line1], loc='upper left')
ax.add_artist(first_legend) # Add back
ax.legend(handles=[line2], loc='lower right')# ❌ Problem: Legend or Axis title is cut off in the .png file
# ✅ Solution:
fig.savefig('output.png', bbox_inches='tight')fig, ax = plt.subplots()bbox_inches='tight'constrained_layout=Trueplt.rcParams