Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a plotting library for the Python programming language and its scientific ecosystem. It provides a versatile framework for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in a wide range of formats and environments. Matplotlib was originally developed by John D. Hunter and has since been maintained and extended by a broad community of contributors, with support for multiple backends and output formats.

The library offers two primary interfaces. The pyplot module provides a state-based, MATLAB-like interface for quick, interactive plots, while the object-oriented API uses Figure and Axes objects for explicit and programmable control. This dual approach allows both simple plotting tasks and fine-grained customization.

Matplotlib supports many plot types, including line, scatter, bar, histogram, error bars, and box plots, as well as subplots, annotations, and color maps. It also provides 3D plotting through mpl_toolkits.mplot3d, animations, and interactive widgets. The library emphasizes extensibility and theming, with a large set of styles and the ability to compose figures from multiple axes and artists. It integrates with NumPy and Pandas data structures.

Matplotlib is a core component of the Python scientific stack and is commonly used alongside SciPy and scikit-learn. It interoperates with other visualization tools, and the Seaborn library builds on top of it for statistical plots. Figures can be exported to formats such as PNG, PDF, SVG, and EPS, and can be embedded in GUI applications or web pages via various backends. It is released under an open-source BSD license.