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We're updating the default styles for Matplotlib 2.0

Learn what to expect in the new updates

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Default Style Changes

Colormap

matplotlib is changing the default colormap and styles in the upcoming 2.0 release!

The new default color map will be ‘viridis’ (aka option D). For an introduction to color theory and how ‘viridis’ was generated watch Nathaniel Smith and Stéfan van der Walt’s talk from SciPy2015

All four color maps will be included in matplotlib 1.5.

Everything Else

We are soliciting proposals to change any and all visual defaults (including adding new rcParams as needed).

If you have a proposal please create an issue or PR on github with the changes to rcsetup.py and matplotlibrc.template by August 9, 2015.

In the second week of August, Michael Droettboom and Thomas Caswell will decide on the new default styles, with the release of 2.0 by the beginning of September 2015.

A ‘classic’ style sheet will be provided so reverting to the 1.x default values will be a single line of python (mpl.style.use('classic')).