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Matplotlib for Python Developers [Paperback]

S Tosi

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Book Description

1 Dec 2009
Providing appealing plots and graphs is an essential part of various fields such as scientific research, data analysis, and so on. Matplotlib, the Python 2D plotting library, is used to produce publication-quality figures in a variety of hardcopy formats and interactive environments across platforms. This book explains creating various plots, histograms, power spectra, bar charts, error charts, scatter-plots and much more using the powerful Matplotlib library to get impressive out-of-the-box results.

This book gives you a comprehensive tour of the key features of the Matplotlib Python 2D plotting library, right from the simplest concepts to the most advanced topics. You will discover how easy it is to produce professional-quality plots when you have this book to hand.

The book introduces the library in steps. First come the basics: introducing what the library is, its important prerequisites (and terminology), installing and configuring Matplotlib, and going through simple plots such as lines, grids, axes, and charts. Then we start with some introductory examples, and move ahead by discussing the various programming styles that Matplotlib allows, and several key features.

Further, the book presents an important section on embedding applications. You will be introduced to three of the best known GUI libraries—GTK+, Qt, and wxWidgets—and presented with the steps to implement to include Matplotlib in an application written using each of them. You will learn through an incremental approach: from a simple example that presents the peculiarities of the GUI library, to more complex ones, using GUI designer tools.

Because the Web permeates all of our activities, a part of the book is dedicated to showing how Matplotlib can be used in a web environment, and another section focuses on using Matplotlib with common Python web frameworks, namely, Pylons and Django. Last, but not least, you will go through real-world examples, where you will see some real situations in which you can use Matplotlib.

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Matplotlib for Python Developers + NumPy 1.5 Beginner's Guide + SciPy and NumPy: An Overview for Developers
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About the Author

Sandro Tosi


Sandro Tosi is a Debian Developer, Open Source evangelist, and Python enthusiast. After completing a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Firenze, he worked as a consultant for an energy multinational as System Analyst and EAI Architect, and now works as System Engineer for one of the biggest and most innovative Italian Internet companies.


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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Amazon.com: 3.2 out of 5 stars  11 reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Helps when starting, great for developers who want to embed 12 Feb 2010
By Michael Galloy - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Matplotlib is a popular 2-dimensional plotting library used with Python. While Matplotlib is fairly powerful, I have always had trouble figuring out how to do what I needed from the documentation. I have found the online Matplotlib documentation adequate as a reference, but not very good for getting started (especially since Matplotlib uses some terms in what I would call a "non-standard" way).

Matplotlib for Python Developers by Sandro Tosi is a welcome addition to my bookshelf. It focuses on embedding Matplotlib in applications in GTK+, Qt 4, wxWidgets, and even various web frameworks such as Pylons and Django. But the fundamental elements of the scientific Python tool chain, such as NumPy and IPython, as well as a thorough tutorial of Matplotlib itself are discussed. Both the pylab/pyplot procedural interface (useful for interactive plotting) and object-oriented interface (useful for fine-tuning and more advanced usage) are covered. Over 2000 lines of example code are downloadable from the book site.

Seeing as I don't use Matplotlib regularly, I'm sure I will using this book frequently to brush up on Matplotlib basics. And this book would have saved me a lot of time when I was writing my only major Python project, a PyQt 4 application which embedded interactive Matplotlib graphics. While this book doesn't cover every detail of Matplotlib (the online docs are good for that), it will get you started no matter how you are using it.

The publisher has made a sample chapter on embedding Matplotlib in Qt4 available for download. More information, such as a full table of contents, is also available on the publisher's site.

Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Decent introduction, but short on under-the-hood details 1 Feb 2011
By J. M. Hughes - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I picked up this book a while back and was looking forward to see if it offered any additional insights into the inner workings of Matplotlib (mpl) beyond what is provided with the mpl package. In general, I found the book to be good for someone looking for a Python-based data plotting tool along the lines of gnuplot or MATLAB, but not so useful for shedding any additional light on the details of the underlying classes and methods of mpl.

That being said, "Matplotlib for Python developers" does a pretty good job of introducing the reader to the basic capabilities of the mpl package. It describes how to write simple Python scripts to tackle common graphing tasks, and then how to pretty up the output for inclusion in a paper or presentation. What I found lacking was the kind of in-depth knowledge I wanted to see regarding embedding mpl into Python applications. For me it would have been more useful if it had at least included an index of mpl's classes and methods, with some discussion to build on what is already included with the mpl package. The examples given were fine, in and of themselves, but there is no real guidance as to how to take it beyond that. Some additional detailed examples of how to extend mpl's classes and what methods one might want to override would have been most useful.

All in all, it's a good place to start for someone who's never worked with Matplotlib before, and it offers the more advanced reader a sampler of what can be done with a little effort. I've been recommending this book to my colleagues who have expressed an interest in using Python to expand their repertoire beyond the realm of MATLAB and gnuplot. If a second edition includes some additional low-level technical details and examples (perhaps in a couple of appendices), then I think it could be a much more useful book and appeal to a wider audience.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Matplotlib is excellent, this book doesn't provide many details 18 Nov 2011
By Daniel D. Hickstein - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Matplotlib makes excellent plots, animations, etc., but there is little in this book that is not available in the matplotlib documentation: [...]

I was hoping that this book would provide some "big picture" guidance regarding how to make plots for scientific publication, or some tips to speed up the learning process. I found that I was better off just googling my questions.
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