4. Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a standard for producing high-quality and interactive figures. The pyplot module is highly similar to Matlab’s plotting functions, and offers an easy-to-understand, yet very powerful way to produce figures.

Fig. 4.1 Matplotlib logo

Matplotlib can generate a wide variety of plots. Here are different examples that are relevant to biomechanics, reproduced from the Matplotlib website:

plt.plot	plt.scatter

plt.fill_between	plt.imshow

plt.errorbar	plt.bar

This chapter focuses solely on line plots using plt.plot. However, after learning this type of plot and NumPy, any other type of plot will become relatively easy to draw just by reading their documentation.

Chapter Contents

• 4.1. Importing pyplot
• 4.2. Line plots
• 4.3. Plotting multiple series
• 4.4. Title, axis labels, legend and grid
• 4.5. Multiple plots side by side
• 4.6. Markers, line style and colour
• 4.7. Setting axes limits
• 4.8. Graphical input
• 4.9. Exercises