prettyplotlib

Painlessly create beautiful matplotlib plots.

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prettyplotlib

Python matplotlib-enhancer library which painlessly creates beautiful default matplotlib plots. Inspired by Edward Tufte's work on information design and Cynthia Brewer's work on color perception.

I truly believe that scientific progress is impeded when improper data visualizations are used. I spent a lot of time tweaking my figures to make them more understandable, and realized the scientific world could be a better place if the default parameters for plotting libraries followed recent advances in information design research. And thus prettyplotlib was born.

Requirements:

  • matplotlib. Can be installed via pip install matplotlib or easy_install matplotlib
  • brewer2mpl. Can be installed via pip install brewer2mpl or easy_install brewer2mpl

Comparison to matplotlib

matplotlib default plot
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prettyplotlib default plot
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matplotlib default fill_between
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prettyplotlib default fill_between
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matplotlib default fill_betweenx
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prettyplotlib default fill_betweenx
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matplotlib default scatter
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prettyplotlib default scatter
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matplotlib default bar
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prettyplotlib default bar
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matplotlib default non-annotated bar
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prettyplotlib default annotated bar
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matplotlib default hist
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prettyplotlib default hist
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matplotlib default hist
with grid
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prettyplotlib default hist
with grid
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matplotlib default boxplot
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prettyplotlib default boxplot
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matplotlib default pcolormesh
positive and negative data
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prettyplotlib default pcolormesh
positive and negative data
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matplotlib default pcolormesh
positive data only
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prettyplotlib default pcolormesh
positive data only
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matplotlib pcolormesh
negative-valued data with labels
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prettyplotlib pcolormesh
negative-valued data with labels
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Quotes

"Dis ain't no uglyplotlib" - Anonymous