Matplotlib

By far my favorite feature of matplotlib is that it produces readable and accessible plots by default. Font sizes and linewidths are not too small, the default color palette is colorblind-friendly, and the default colormaps are perceptually uniform. Other software (for example Matlab and Mathematica) have absolutely terrible defaults and require a lot of fiddling to get the plots right.

Re: Matplotlib

#5

Post by juujian » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 3:55 PM UTC

ggplot > madplitlib, cmm

Re: Matplotlib

#6

Post by qwertox » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 3:58 PM UTC

fsh wrote: post #4

By far my favorite feature of matplotlib is that it produces readable and accessible plots by default. Font sizes and linewidths are not too small, the default color palette is colorblind-friendly, and the default colormaps are perceptually uniform. Other software (for example Matlab and Mathematica) have absolutely terrible defaults and require a lot of fiddling to get the plots right.

My only issue with it is that you need a lot of tweaking to get a compact layout. Other than that, it's a key part of what makes Python such an incredibly useful language.

Re: Matplotlib

#7

Post by tosh » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

rnadomvirlabe wrote: post #2

What about it? Are you trying to point to something specific?

I haven’t used matplotlib in a while (also because I wasn’t fluid with it) and now am using it regularly in Code Interpreter w/ GPT-4.

Now I’m thinking there must be many more libraries that are now “in reach” for me for casual use which weren’t just a few weeks ago.

Re: Matplotlib

#8

Post by theodpHN » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 4:32 PM UTC

Matplotlib is amazing and nice to have when you need it but can be way too complicated for the average user and visualization. Most users' needs, I think, would be better served by something like Plotly Express or other higher-level dataviz packages (for visualizations-thru-code) and Tableau, PowerBI, and Excel (for interactive WYSIWYG dataviz).

Re: Matplotlib

#9

Post by esafak » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 4:33 PM UTC

Not my favorite library but it gets the job done.

Re: Matplotlib

#10

Post by hughess » Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 4:39 PM UTC

fsh wrote: post #4

By far my favorite feature of matplotlib is that it produces readable and accessible plots by default. Font sizes and linewidths are not too small, the default color palette is colorblind-friendly, and the default colormaps are perceptually uniform. Other software (for example Matlab and Mathematica) have absolutely terrible defaults and require a lot of fiddling to get the plots right.

That fiddling used to drive me nuts in any of the tools I used to work with. It's part of the problem I'm trying to solve with my current open source project (evidence.dev) where we're tackling viz-as-code. You might find it interesting.

Previous HN discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35645464 (97 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28304781 (91 comments)