Important

This documentation covers IPython versions 6.0 and higher. Beginning with version 6.0, IPython stopped supporting compatibility with Python versions lower than 3.3 including all versions of Python 2.7.

If you are looking for an IPython version compatible with Python 2.7, please use the IPython 5.x LTS release and refer to its documentation (LTS is the long term support release).

Module: `core.magics.pylab`¶

Implementation of magic functions for matplotlib/pylab support.

1 Class¶

class IPython.core.magics.pylab.PylabMagics(**kwargs: Any)¶

Bases: Magics

Magics related to matplotlib’s pylab support

matplotlib(line='')¶

%matplotlib [-l] [gui]

Set up matplotlib to work interactively.

This function lets you activate matplotlib interactive support at any point during an IPython session. It does not import anything into the interactive namespace.

If you are using the inline matplotlib backend in the IPython Notebook you can set which figure formats are enabled using the following:

In [1]: from matplotlib_inline.backend_inline import set_matplotlib_formats

In [2]: set_matplotlib_formats('pdf', 'svg')

The default for inline figures sets bbox_inches to ‘tight’. This can cause discrepancies between the displayed image and the identical image created using savefig. This behavior can be disabled using the %config magic:

In [3]: %config InlineBackend.print_figure_kwargs = {'bbox_inches':None}

In addition, see the docstrings of matplotlib_inline.backend_inline.set_matplotlib_formats and matplotlib_inline.backend_inline.set_matplotlib_close for more information on changing additional behaviors of the inline backend.

Examples

To enable the inline backend for usage with the IPython Notebook:

In [1]: %matplotlib inline

In this case, where the matplotlib default is TkAgg:

In [2]: %matplotlib
Using matplotlib backend: TkAgg

But you can explicitly request a different GUI backend:

In [3]: %matplotlib qt

You can list the available backends using the -l/–list option:

In [4]: %matplotlib --list
Available matplotlib backends: ['osx', 'qt4', 'qt5', 'gtk3', 'gtk4', 'notebook', 'wx', 'qt', 'nbagg',
'gtk', 'tk', 'inline']

positional arguments:

gui Name of the matplotlib backend to use such as ‘qt’ or ‘widget’. If given, the corresponding matplotlib: backend is used, otherwise it will be matplotlib’s default (which you can set in your matplotlib config file).

options:

-l, --list: Show available matplotlib backends

pylab(line='')¶

%pylab [--no-import-all] [gui]

Load numpy and matplotlib to work interactively.

This function lets you activate pylab (matplotlib, numpy and interactive support) at any point during an IPython session.

%pylab makes the following imports:

import numpy
import matplotlib
from matplotlib import pylab, mlab, pyplot
np = numpy
plt = pyplot

from IPython.display import display
from IPython.core.pylabtools import figsize, getfigs

from pylab import *
from numpy import *

If you pass --no-import-all, the last two * imports will be excluded.

See the %matplotlib magic for more details about activating matplotlib without affecting the interactive namespace.

positional arguments:

gui Name of the matplotlib backend to use such as ‘qt’ or ‘widget’. If given, the corresponding matplotlib: backend is used, otherwise it will be matplotlib’s default (which you can set in your matplotlib config file).

options:

--no-import-all: Prevent IPython from performing import * into the interactive namespace. You can govern the default behavior of this flag with the InteractiveShellApp.pylab_import_all configurable.

Module: core.magics.pylab¶

1 Class¶

Module: `core.magics.pylab`¶