Changes for 0.50 ================ .. code-block:: text * refactored Figure class so it is no longer backend dependent. FigureCanvasBackend takes over the backend specific duties of the Figure. matplotlib.backend_bases.FigureBase moved to matplotlib.figure.Figure. * backends must implement FigureCanvasBackend (the thing that controls the figure and handles the events if any) and FigureManagerBackend (wraps the canvas and the window for MATLAB interface). FigureCanvasBase implements a backend switching mechanism * Figure is now an Artist (like everything else in the figure) and is totally backend independent * GDFONTPATH renamed to TTFPATH * backend faceColor argument changed to rgbFace * colormap stuff moved to colors.py * arg_to_rgb in backend_bases moved to class ColorConverter in colors.py * GD users must upgrade to gd-2.0.22 and gdmodule-0.52 since new gd features (clipping, antialiased lines) are now used. * Renderer must implement points_to_pixels Migrating code: MATLAB interface: The only API change for those using the MATLAB interface is in how you call figure redraws for dynamically updating figures. In the old API, you did fig.draw() In the new API, you do manager = get_current_fig_manager() manager.canvas.draw() See the examples system_monitor.py, dynamic_demo.py, and anim.py API There is one important API change for application developers. Figure instances used subclass GUI widgets that enabled them to be placed directly into figures. e.g., FigureGTK subclassed gtk.DrawingArea. Now the Figure class is independent of the backend, and FigureCanvas takes over the functionality formerly handled by Figure. In order to include figures into your apps, you now need to do, for example # gtk example fig = Figure(figsize=(5,4), dpi=100) canvas = FigureCanvasGTK(fig) # a gtk.DrawingArea canvas.show() vbox.pack_start(canvas) If you use the NavigationToolbar, this in now initialized with a FigureCanvas, not a Figure. The examples embedding_in_gtk.py, embedding_in_gtk2.py, and mpl_with_glade.py all reflect the new API so use these as a guide. All prior calls to figure.draw() and figure.print_figure(args) should now be canvas.draw() and canvas.print_figure(args) Apologies for the inconvenience. This refactorization brings significant more freedom in developing matplotlib and should bring better plotting capabilities, so I hope the inconvenience is worth it.