Question

What’s best open source library in Python to draw chart/diagram? 2D is necessary, and 3D is good if provided together. and it has to accept simple input data format like csv.

I googled one called: matplotlib, how is it and any others?

It should be best in terms of the reliability, performance, simple use and easy integration, etc., or a combination of them.

Thanks

Answer 1

From the official python wiki:

Over the years many different plotting modules and packages have been
developed for Python. For most of that time there was no clear
favorite package, but recently matplotlib has become the most widely
used.

matplotlib highlights for me:

• easy to learn (based on matlab traditions but also features object-oriented paradigm)
• reliable (well-supported, updated, and documented)
• robust (check out some of the stuff you can do with it!)
• large community of users (well-liked and highly regarded in many circles)
• easy to integrate (works natively alongside numpy/scipy)
• accepts TeX commands for special formatting
• quite the accepted standard for both simple and complicated chart drawing

I personally use it for many purposes including making diagrams for work presentations, graphics for school papers, and even charts and images for formal scientific documentation in mathematics and computer science. Especially the TeX stuff is particularly useful to me.

So I think you had the right idea. Matplotlib came up first in your google search because it’s by far the most reputable, and in general the most useful.

In case you want to investigate some others, here’s a link to an overview of some available plotting tools on the official python wiki: http://wiki.python.org/moin/NumericAndScientific/Plotting#Plotting_Tools