PlottingΒΆ
One major feature of the IPython kernel is the ability to display plots that are the output of running code cells. The IPython kernel is designed to work seamlessly with the matplotlib plotting library to provide this functionality.
To set this up, before any plotting is performed you must execute the
%matplotlib
magic command. This performs the
necessary behind-the-scenes setup for IPython to work correctly hand in hand
with matplotlib
; it does not, however, actually execute any Python
import
commands, that is, no names are added to the namespace.
If the %matplotlib
magic is called without an argument, the
output of a plotting command is displayed using the default matplotlib
backend in a separate window. Alternatively, the backend can be explicitly
requested using, for example:
%matplotlib gtk
A particularly interesting backend, provided by IPython, is the inline
backend. This is available only for the Jupyter Notebook and the
Jupyter QtConsole. It can be invoked as follows:
%matplotlib inline
With this backend, the output of plotting commands is displayed inline within the notebook, directly below the code cell that produced it. The resulting plots will then also be stored in the notebook document.
See also
Plotting with Matplotlib example notebook