Introduction

In the previous chapter, we focused on various visualizations and identified which visualization is best suited to show certain information for a given dataset. We learned about the features, uses, and best practices for following various plots such as comparison plots, relation plots, composition plots, distribution plots, and geoplots.

Matplotlib is probably the most popular plotting library for Python. It is used for data science and machine learning visualizations all around the world. John Hunter was an American neurobiologist who began developing Matplotlib in 2003. It aimed to emulate the commands of the MATLAB software, which was the scientific standard back then. Several features, such as the global style of MATLAB, were introduced into Matplotlib to make the transition to Matplotlib easier for MATLAB users. This chapter teaches you how to best utilize the various functions and methods of Matplotlib to create insightful visualizations.

Before we start...