.. The source of this document is INSTALL. During the doc build process, .. this file is copied over to doc/users/installing.rst. .. Therefore, you must edit INSTALL, *not* doc/users/installing.rst! ********** Installing ********** There are many different ways to install matplotlib, and the best way depends on what operating system you are using, what you already have installed, and how you want to use it. To avoid wading through all the details (and potential complications) on this page, there are several convenient options. Installing pre-built packages ============================= Most platforms : scientific Python distributions ------------------------------------------------ The first option is to use one of the pre-packaged python distributions that already provide matplotlib built-in. The Continuum.io Python distribution (`Anaconda `_ or `miniconda `_) and the Enthought distribution `(Canopy) `_ are both excellent choices that "just work" out of the box for Windows, OSX and common Linux platforms. Both of these distributions include matplotlib and *lots* of other useful tools. Another excellent alternative for Windows users is `Python (x, y) `_ . Linux : using your package manager ---------------------------------- If you are on Linux, you might prefer to use your package manager. matplotlib is packaged for almost every major Linux distribution. * Debian / Ubuntu : ``sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib`` * Fedora / Redhat : ``sudo yum install python-matplotlib`` Mac OSX : using pip ------------------- If you are on Mac OSX you can probably install matplotlib binaries using the standard Python installation program `pip `_. See :ref:`install_osx_binaries`. Windows ------- If you don't already have Python installed, we recommend using one of the `scipy-stack compatible Python distributions `_ such as WinPython, Python(x,y), Enthought Canopy, or Continuum Anaconda, which have matplotlib and many of its dependencies, plus other useful packages, preinstalled. For `standard Python `_ installations you will also need to install compatible versions of `setuptools `_, `numpy `_, `python-dateutil `_, `pytz `_, `pyparsing `_, and `cycler `_ in addition to `matplotlib `_. For Python 3.5 the `Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 `_ needs to be installed. In case Python 2.7 to 3.4 are not installed for all users (not the default), the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 ( `64 bit `__ or `32 bit `__ for Python 2.7 to 3.2) or Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 ( `64 bit `__ or `32 bit `__ for Python 3.3 and 3.4) redistributable packages need to be installed. Matplotlib depends on `Pillow `_ for reading and saving JPEG, BMP, and TIFF image files. Matplotlib requires `MiKTeX `_ and `GhostScript `_ for rendering text with LaTeX. `FFmpeg `_, `avconv `_, `mencoder `_, or `ImageMagick `_ are required for the animation module. The following backends should work out of the box: agg, tkagg, ps, pdf and svg. For other backends you may need to install `pycairo `_, `PyQt4 `_, `PyQt5 `_, `PySide `_, `wxPython `_, `PyGTK `_, `Tornado `_, or GhostScript. TkAgg is probably the best backend for interactive use from the standard Python shell or IPython. It is enabled as the default backend for the official binaries. GTK3 is not supported on Windows. The Windows installers (:file:`*.exe`) and wheels (:file:`*.whl`) on the `PyPI download page `_ do not contain test data or example code. If you want to try the many demos that come in the matplotlib source distribution, download the :file:`*.tar.gz` file and look in the :file:`examples` subdirectory. To run the test suite, copy the :file:`lib\matplotlib\tests` and :file:`lib\mpl_toolkits\tests` directories from the source distribution to :file:`sys.prefix\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib` and :file:`sys.prefix\Lib\site-packages\mpl_toolkits` respectively, and install `nose `_, `mock `_, Pillow, MiKTeX, GhostScript, ffmpeg, avconv, mencoder, ImageMagick, and `Inkscape `_. .. _install_from_source: Installing from source ====================== If you are interested in contributing to matplotlib development, running the latest source code, or just like to build everything yourself, it is not difficult to build matplotlib from source. Grab the latest *tar.gz* release file from `the PyPI files page `_, or if you want to develop matplotlib or just need the latest bugfixed version, grab the latest git version :ref:`install-from-git`. The standard environment variables `CC`, `CXX`, `PKG_CONFIG` are respected. This means you can set them if your toolchain is prefixed. This may be used for cross compiling. export CC=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc export CXX=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-g++ export PKG_CONFIG=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-pkg-config Once you have satisfied the requirements detailed below (mainly python, numpy, libpng and freetype), you can build matplotlib:: cd matplotlib python setup.py build python setup.py install We provide a `setup.cfg `_ file that goes with :file:`setup.py` which you can use to customize the build process. For example, which default backend to use, whether some of the optional libraries that matplotlib ships with are installed, and so on. This file will be particularly useful to those packaging matplotlib. If you have installed prerequisites to nonstandard places and need to inform matplotlib where they are, edit ``setupext.py`` and add the base dirs to the ``basedir`` dictionary entry for your ``sys.platform``. e.g., if the header to some required library is in ``/some/path/include/someheader.h``, put ``/some/path`` in the ``basedir`` list for your platform. .. _install_requirements: Build requirements ------------------ These are external packages which you will need to install before installing matplotlib. If you are building on OSX, see :ref:`build_osx`. If you are building on Windows, see :ref:`build_windows`. If you are installing dependencies with a package manager on Linux, you may need to install the development packages (look for a "-dev" postfix) in addition to the libraries themselves. Required Dependencies ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :term:`python` 2.7, 3.4, or 3.5 `Download python `_. :term:`numpy` |minimum_numpy_version| (or later) array support for python (`download numpy `_) :term:`dateutil` 1.1 or later Provides extensions to python datetime handling. If using pip, easy_install or installing from source, the installer will attempt to download and install `python_dateutil` from PyPI. `pyparsing` Required for matplotlib's mathtext math rendering support. If using pip, easy_install or installing from source, the installer will attempt to download and install `pyparsing` from PyPI. libpng 1.2 (or later) library for loading and saving :term:`PNG` files (`download `__). libpng requires zlib. `pytz` Used to manipulate time-zone aware datetimes. :term:`freetype` 2.3 or later library for reading true type font files. ``cycler`` 0.9 or later Composable cycle class used for constructing style-cycles Optional GUI framework ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ These are optional packages which you may want to install to use matplotlib with a user interface toolkit. See :ref:`what-is-a-backend` for more details on the optional matplotlib backends and the capabilities they provide. :term:`tk` 8.3 or later The TCL/Tk widgets library used by the TkAgg backend :term:`pyqt` 4.0 or later The Qt4 widgets library python wrappers for the Qt4Agg backend :term:`pygtk` 2.4 or later The python wrappers for the GTK widgets library for use with the GTK or GTKAgg backend :term:`wxpython` 2.8 or later The python wrappers for the wx widgets library for use with the WX or WXAgg backend Optional external programs ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ffmpeg/avconv or mencoder Required for the animation module to be save out put to movie formats. ImageMagick Required for the animation module to be able to save to animated gif. Optional dependencies ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `Pillow `__ If Pillow is installed, matplotlib can read and write a larger selection of image file formats. pkg-config A tool used to find required non-python libraries. This is not strictly required, but can make installation go more smoothly if the libraries and headers are not in the expected locations. Required libraries that ship with matplotlib ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :term:`agg` 2.4 The antigrain C++ rendering engine. matplotlib links against the agg template source statically, so it will not affect anything on your system outside of matplotlib. `qhull` 2012.1 A library for computing Delaunay triangulations. `ttconv` truetype font utility six 1.9.0 Python 2/3 compatibility library. Do not use this in third-party code. .. _build_linux: Building on Linux ----------------- It is easiest to use your system package manager to install the dependencies. If you are on Debian/Ubuntu, you can get all the dependencies required to build matplotlib with:: sudo apt-get build-dep python-matplotlib If you are on Fedora/RedHat, you can get all the dependencies required to build matplotlib by first installing ``yum-builddep`` and then running:: su -c "yum-builddep python-matplotlib" This does not build matplotlib, but it does get the install the build dependencies, which will make building from source easier. .. _build_osx: Building on OSX --------------- The build situation on OSX is complicated by the various places one can get the libpng and freetype requirements (darwinports, fink, /usr/X11R6) and the different architectures (e.g., x86, ppc, universal) and the different OSX version (e.g., 10.4 and 10.5). We recommend that you build the way we do for the OSX release: get the source from the tarball or the git repository and follow the instruction in :file:`README.osx`. .. _build_windows: Building on Windows ------------------- The Python shipped from http://www.python.org is compiled with Visual Studio 2008 for versions before 3.3 and Visual Studio 2010 for 3.3 and later. Python extensions are recommended to be compiled with the same compiler. The .NET Framework 4.0 is required for MSBuild (you'll likely have the requisite Framework with Visual Studio). In addition to Visual Studio `CMake `_ is required for building libpng. Since there is no canonical Windows package manager the build methods for freetype, zlib, libpng, tcl, & tk source code are documented as a build script at `matplotlib-winbuild `_.