Matplotlib Cheat Sheet

Free Matplotlib cheat sheet: the most-used Matplotlib syntax and methods at a glance — searchable and beginner-friendly.

Basics

Concept	Syntax	Example
Import pyplot The universal alias — every snippet assumes plt.	`import matplotlib.pyplot as plt`	`import matplotlib.pyplot as plt`
Line plot The workhorse — connects points with a line.	`plt.plot(x, y)`	`plt.plot([1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6])`
Show the figure Renders the plot window. Call it last.	`plt.show()`	`plt.show()`
Create a figure Set the canvas size in inches before plotting.	`plt.figure(figsize=(w, h))`	`plt.figure(figsize=(8, 5))`
Clear / close Free memory when generating many plots in a loop.	`plt.clf() / plt.close()`	`plt.close()`

Plot Types

Concept	Syntax	Example
Scatter Points with no connecting line — show correlation.	`plt.scatter(x, y)`	`plt.scatter(heights, weights)`
Bar chart plt.barh() for horizontal bars.	`plt.bar(x, height)`	`plt.bar(["A", "B", "C"], [10, 20, 15])`
Histogram Shows the distribution of a single variable.	`plt.hist(data, bins=n)`	`plt.hist(ages, bins=20)`
Pie chart Add autopct="%1.1f%%" to show percentages.	`plt.pie(sizes, labels=...)`	`plt.pie([30, 70], labels=["No", "Yes"])`
Box plot Visualizes median, quartiles, and outliers.	`plt.boxplot(data)`	`plt.boxplot([group1, group2])`

Labels & Legends

Concept	Syntax	Example
Axis labels Always label your axes.	`plt.xlabel() / plt.ylabel()`	`plt.xlabel("Year"); plt.ylabel("Sales")`
Title A descriptive heading above the plot.	`plt.title("text")`	`plt.title("Monthly Sales")`
Legend Reads the label= you set on each plot call.	`plt.legend()`	`plt.plot(x, y, label="2025"); plt.legend()`
Axis limits Manually set the visible range of each axis.	`plt.xlim() / plt.ylim()`	`plt.ylim(0, 100)`
Ticks Add rotation=45 to angle long labels.	`plt.xticks(positions, labels)`	`plt.xticks([0, 1, 2], ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar"])`
Text annotation Point at and label a specific data point.	`plt.annotate(text, xy=(x, y))`	`plt.annotate("peak", xy=(3, 9))`

Styling

Concept	Syntax	Example
Color & line style Linestyles: '-', '--', '-.', ':'.	`plt.plot(x, y, color=, linestyle=)`	`plt.plot(x, y, color="red", linestyle="--")`
Markers Markers: 'o', 's', '^', '*', 'x'.	`plt.plot(x, y, marker=)`	`plt.plot(x, y, marker="o")`
Format string shortcut Combine color+marker+linestyle in one string.	`plt.plot(x, y, "fmt")`	`plt.plot(x, y, "ro--") # red circles, dashed`
Line width / alpha alpha controls transparency from 0 to 1.	`linewidth=, alpha=`	`plt.plot(x, y, linewidth=2, alpha=0.6)`
Grid Adds reference gridlines behind the data.	`plt.grid(True)`	`plt.grid(True, linestyle=":")`
Built-in style Try 'seaborn-v0_8', 'fivethirtyeight', 'dark_background'.	`plt.style.use("name")`	`plt.style.use("ggplot")`

Subplots

Concept	Syntax	Example
Figure + axes grid The recommended object-oriented entry point.	`fig, ax = plt.subplots(rows, cols)`	`fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(10, 8))`
Plot on an axis Each Axes object has its own plot/set methods.	`ax.plot(x, y)`	`ax[0, 0].plot(x, y)`
Set labels (OO style) On Axes use set_ prefixes instead of plt. functions.	`ax.set_xlabel() / ax.set_title()`	`ax.set_title("Panel A")`
Single subplot Index is 1-based and counts left-to-right, top-to-bottom.	`plt.subplot(rows, cols, index)`	`plt.subplot(1, 2, 1)`
Tidy spacing Prevents overlapping labels between subplots.	`plt.tight_layout()`	`plt.tight_layout()`

Saving

Concept	Syntax	Example
Save to file Format is inferred from the extension (.png, .pdf, .svg).	`plt.savefig("name.png")`	`plt.savefig("chart.png")`
High resolution 300 dpi is print quality.	`plt.savefig(..., dpi=n)`	`plt.savefig("chart.png", dpi=300)`
Trim whitespace Crops empty margins around the figure.	`bbox_inches="tight"`	`plt.savefig("chart.png", bbox_inches="tight")`
Transparent background Useful for overlaying on slides or web pages.	`transparent=True`	`plt.savefig("chart.png", transparent=True)`
Save before show plt.show() can clear the figure, so save first.	`savefig() then show()`	`plt.savefig("out.png"); plt.show()`