For a summary of the comparative strengths and features of the various backends, see which backend should I use?. This page describes how to install and use each backend.
You can choose your default backend in the matplotlibrc file. The default can be overridden from the command line prompt. This allows most if not all matplotlib scripts can generate output to any of the backends without any alterations. Following the lead of the matlab print command, the backend can be chosen from the command line with the -d flag, as in
# the GUI backends > python subplot_demo.py -dGTK # GTK GUI with gdk drawing > python subplot_demo.py -dGTKAgg # GTK GUI with antigrain rendering > python subplot_demo.py -dTkAgg # Tkinter GUI with antigrain rendering > python subplot_demo.py -dWX # WX backend # The image backends, no window pops up; you must call savefig > python subplot_demo.py -dAgg # antigrain geometry backend image > python subplot_demo.py -dGD # GD backend > python subplot_demo.py -dPaint # Paint backend > python subplot_demo.py -dPS # postscript backendFor backends that do not have a GUI, no output will be produced unless a call to savefig is made. The recommended way to use the savefig function is to not give an extension. The backends will choose the proper extension. This allows you to write a single script and select the output format from the command line. So a script containing savefig('somefile') will create somefile.ps if called with -dPS and somefile.png if called with -dGD, and so on.
Alternatively, you can select the backend renderer in your script by calling the matplotlib use function. At the top of your script (before you import matplotlib.matlab, just do, for example
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('PS')
The current backend strings that are supported are
GD, Agg, GTK, GTKAgg, PS TkAgg WX Paint and Template.
The default is GTK. Template is a do nothing backend that serves as a
template for backend writers (volunteers welcome!).To get the most of your backend of choice, you may need to set an environment variable controlling the fonts; see fonts for more information.
Specific information for installing the other backends can be found on this page below or by clicking
I am not sure what the status of GTK2 versus version number is with the other distros, but I would be happy for answers, so if you know, please email me @myemail@. If you put matplotlib in the subject, the email will be sure to get past my spam filters.
See the fonts for more information about getting the GTK backend setup for proper font rendering. If you are experiencing warnings about Times font not being found, see this FAQ entry
WX
Requires wxpython. Windows users
may want to consider the enthought edition of python,
which comes with wxpython and Numeric built in, so matplotlib will
work right out of the box. matplotlib under WX has been tested on
linux, win32 and OSX.
Agg output
The antigrain geometry library is a
platform independent library that provides efficient antialiased
rendering with a vector model. Because it doesn't depend on a GUI
framework, it is suitable for use in web application servers
generating images for html inclusion or for generating images in batch
scripts. Agg can also be embedded in GUI applications, as in the
GTKAgg and TkAgg backends -- see setup.py
The windows installer comes with Agg prebuilt. To compile Agg from src, set the BUILD_AGG flag in setup.py. Like the other freetype image modules GD and Paint, Agg uses TTFQuery and fonttools for cross-platform font finding. These modules, too, are included in the windows installer, and will be build automatically by setting BUILD_AGG. See ttf fonts for information about setting your paths to find your *.ttf font files.
GTKAgg: GTK GUI with antigrain rendering
GTK has a very nice and portable widget set. The gdk drawing
commands, while fast, are somewhat limited. To overcome this
limitation, GTKAgg marries the widgets of GTK with the rendering of antigrain. You need the agg and gtk
prerequisites. On windows, GTKAgg is builtin, so you only need to
install pygtk and the GTK runtime, as described in gtk.
Tkinter GUI backend
Todd Miller has written a backend for Tkinter that uses the agg
backend for rendering. To use Tkagg, you need to set the BUILD_TKAGG
flag in setup.py. The windows installer comes with TkAgg prebuilt.
See agg backend for more information on
agg rendering and fonts. NOTE: on at least some versions of redhat
linux, you must install a separate tkinter package, apparently
tkinter-2.2.2-26.i386.rpm on Red Hat 9 linux. Alternately, Python
built from source code (Python.org tarball, not the redhat SRPM)
includes Tkinter support by default on Red Hat Linux.
The GD backend depends on Numeric/numarray, gdmodule, gd, TTFQuery and fonttools. To ease installation, the latter two packages now ship with matplotlib. Set the flag BUILD_FONTTOOLS in setup.py to build both TTFQuery and fonttools with matplotlib. Below are instructions for building gdmoule.
cd /var/tmp
tar xvfz ~/src/gd-2.0.22.tar.gz
cd gd-2.0.22/
./configure --prefix=/usr
sudo make install
cd /var/tmp
tar xvfz ~/python/src/gdmodule-0.52.tar.gz
cd gdmodule-0.52
sudo python2.3 Setup.py install
Postscript
The only requirement is Numeric/numarray
See the fonts page for more information
about getting the postscript backend setup for proper font rendering;
notably, you must make sure there are some '*.afm' files in your
AFMPATH if you want to use fonts other than the ones that
ship with matplotlib.
Paint
David Moore has written a paint backend for matplotlib. paint is a libart wrapper. In a
nutshell, libart is a svg oriented, high performance, 2D graphics
engine that supports lots of nifty features. The paint backend
exposes some of them, and David has been extending it to expose more.
The paint backend requires Numeric/numarray, pypaint version 0.3. If you want cross-platform freetype font selection support, you'll also need TTFQuery and fonttools - these now ship with matplotlib in both the src and windows binary distributions. See freetype fonts for more information.
libart is highly portable, and the paint backend has been confirmed to work on win32 and linux. The pypaint web site has a src distribution and a windows installer.
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