When using the library you will typically create

:doc:`Figure <figure_api>` and :doc:`Axes <axes_api>` objects and

call their methods to add content and modify the appearance.

- :mod:`matplotlib.figure`: axes creation, figure-level content

- :mod:`matplotlib.axes`: most plotting methods, Axes labels, access to axis

styling, etc.

Example: We create a Figure ``fig`` and Axes ``ax``. Then we call

methods on them to plot data, add axis labels and a figure title.

.. plot::

:include-source:

:align: center

import numpy as np

x = np.arange(0, 4, 0.05)

y = np.sin(x*np.pi)

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(3,2), constrained_layout=True)

ax.plot(x, y)

ax.set_xlabel('t [s]')

ax.set_ylabel('S [V]')

ax.set_title('Sine wave')

fig.set_facecolor('lightsteelblue')

.. _usage_patterns:

Below we describe several common approaches to plotting with Matplotlib. See

:ref:`api_interfaces` for an explanation of the trade-offs between the supported user

APIs.

The explicit API

At its core, Matplotlib is an object-oriented library. We recommend directly

working with the objects if you need more control and customization of your

plots.

In many cases you will create a `.Figure` and one or more

`~matplotlib.axes.Axes` using `.pyplot.subplots` and from then on only work

on these objects. However, it's also possible to create `.Figure`\ s

explicitly (e.g. when including them in GUI applications).

Further reading:

- `matplotlib.axes.Axes` and `matplotlib.figure.Figure` for an overview of

plotting functions.

- Most of the :ref:`examples <examples-index>` use the object-oriented approach

(except for the pyplot section)

The implicit API

`matplotlib.pyplot` is a collection of functions that make

Matplotlib work like MATLAB. Each pyplot function makes some change to a

figure: e.g., creates a figure, creates a plotting area in a figure, plots

some lines in a plotting area, decorates the plot with labels, etc.

`.pyplot` is mainly intended for interactive plots and simple cases of

programmatic plot generation.

Further reading:

- The `matplotlib.pyplot` function reference

- :ref:`pyplot_tutorial`

- :ref:`Pyplot examples <pyplots_examples>`