You are reading an old version of the documentation (v2.2.4). For the latest version see https://matplotlib.org/stable/devel/min_dep_policy.html
Version 2.2.4
matplotlib
Fork me on GitHub

Table of Contents

Minimum Version of Dependencies Policy

Python and numpy

  • support minor versions of Python initially released in the previous 3 years
  • support minor versions of numpy initially released in the previous 3 years or oldest that supports the minimum python version (which ever is higher)

We will bump the minimum python and numpy versions as we can every minor and major release, but never on a patch release.

Python Dependencies

For python dependencies we should support at least

with compiled extensions
minor versions released in the last 3 years or the oldest that support our minimum python + numpy
without complied extensions
minor versions released in the last 2 years or the oldest that supports our minimum python.

We will only bump these dependencies as we need new features or the old versions no longer support our minimum numpy or python.

System and C-dependencies

For system or c-dependencies (libpng, freetype, GUI frameworks, latex, gs, ffmpeg) support as old as practical. These can be difficult to install for end-users and we want to be usable on as many systems as possible. We will bump these on a case-by-case basis.