Matplotlib, Release 1.0.1
installing dependencies with a package manager, you may need to install the development packages (look
for a “-dev” postfix) in addition to the libraries themselves.
python 2.4 (or later but not python3) matplotlib requires python 2.4 or later (download)
numpy 1.1 (or later) array support for python (download)
libpng 1.1 (or later) library for loading and saving PNG files (download). libpng requires zlib. If you are
a windows user, you can ignore this since we build support into the matplotlib single click installer
freetype 1.4 (or later) library for reading true type font files. If you are a windows user, you can ignore this
since we build support into the matplotlib single click installer.
Optional
These are optional packages which you may want to install to use matplotlib with a user interface toolkit.
See What is a backend? for more details on the optional matplotlib backends and the capabilities they
provide
tk 8.3 or later The TCL/Tk widgets library used by the TkAgg backend
pyqt 3.1 or later The Qt3 widgets library python wrappers for the QtAgg backend
pyqt 4.0 or later The Qt4 widgets library python wrappers for the Qt4Agg backend
pygtk 2.4 or later The python wrappers for the GTK widgets library for use with the GTK or GTKAgg
backend
wxpython 2.6 or later The python wrappers for the wx widgets library for use with the WXAgg backend
wxpython 2.8 or later The python wrappers for the wx widgets library for use with the WX backend
pyfltk 1.0 or later The python wrappers of the FLTK widgets library for use with FLTKAgg
Required libraries that ship with matplotlib
agg 2.4 The antigrain C++ rendering engine. matplotlib links against the agg template source statically, so
it will not affect anything on your system outside of matplotlib.
pytz 2007g or later timezone handling for python datetime objects. By default, matplotlib will install pytz
if it isn’t already installed on your system. To override the default, use :file:‘setup.cfg to force or
prevent installation of pytz.
dateutil 1.1 or later provides extensions to python datetime handling. By default, matplotlib will install
dateutil if it isn’t already installed on your system. To override the default, use setup.cfg to force
or prevent installation of dateutil.
2.4 Building on OSX
The build situation on OSX is complicated by the various places one can get the png and freetype require-
ments from (darwinports, fink, /usr/X11R6) and the different architectures (x86, ppc, universal) and the
different OSX version (10.4 and 10.5). We recommend that you build the way we do for the OSX release:
by grabbing the tarbar or svn repository, cd-ing into the release/osx dir, and following the instruction in the
2.4. Building on OSX 7