Plotting

One major feature of the IPython kernel is the ability to display plots that are the output of running code cells. The IPython kernel is designed to work seamlessly with the matplotlib_ plotting library to provide this functionality.

To set this up, before any plotting is performed you must execute the %matplotlib :ref:`magic command <magics_explained>`. This performs the necessary behind-the-scenes setup for IPython to work correctly hand in hand with matplotlib; it does not, however, actually execute any Python import commands, that is, no names are added to the namespace.

If the %matplotlib magic is called without an argument, the output of a plotting command is displayed using the default matplotlib backend in a separate window. Alternatively, the backend can be explicitly requested using, for example:

%matplotlib gtk

A particularly interesting backend, provided by IPython, is the inline backend. This is available only for the Jupyter Notebook and the :ref:`Jupyter QtConsole <qtconsole>`. It can be invoked as follows:

%matplotlib inline

With this backend, the output of plotting commands is displayed inline within the notebook, directly below the code cell that produced it. The resulting plots will then also be stored in the notebook document.