pgfplot or matplotlib?

Asked Dec 30 '15 at 00:24

Active Dec 30 '15 at 12:35

Viewed 1,506 times

The reason I ask this is because I was trying to draw multiple lines in pgfplots (I was trying to make a drawing showing how Riemann sums and integrals are connected). And after unsuccessfully trying to use a for loop for an hour or so, I found this solution, which was pretty unsatisfying since it's just a workaround for this particular case. And I thought that it would have been much easier with the power of Python. So, my question is: What do I lose by switching to matplotlib?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

asked Dec 30 '15 at 00:24

Kitegi

5

Maybe I do not understand your question, but is it not obvious!? -by switching to matplotlib, you loose LaTeX. PGFPlot(in TikZ in LaTeX) is used to create high quality plot outputs. – hpekristiansen Dec 30 '15 at 03:52
@Hans-PeterE.Kristiansen Can't I import the resulting plot into LaTeX anyway? – Kitegi Dec 30 '15 at 11:48
Of course, but it's not generated by LaTeX. – Torbjørn T. Dec 30 '15 at 14:01
@TorbjørnT. I know It's not generated by LaTeX. The point is, is there some inherent advantage to drawing all my graphs in LaTeX? – Kitegi Dec 30 '15 at 14:18
1

You get everything in one place, you get the same fonts by default. – Torbjørn T. Dec 30 '15 at 14:24
@TorbjørnT. Hm, I wouldn't say having everything in one place is an advantage. It'll look much cleaner if drawings don't take half of my code. Plus, changing fonts in matplotlib takes only about two lines. – Kitegi Dec 30 '15 at 14:29
Matter of opinion I guess, and there's always \input. – Torbjørn T. Dec 30 '15 at 14:46
I agree with Torbjørn: the tight integration with the rest of the document is a real advantage for me. It allows for things such as neatly aligning the figures with the rest of the content (scaling to \textwidth, for example), or putting the legend in the caption of the figure. – Jake Dec 30 '15 at 15:44
@Farnight: Maybe open a new question asking how to produce your Riemann sum / integral figure with PGFPlots, showing your PGFPlots attempt and your Matplotlib code. There might be a simple way to do this – Jake Dec 30 '15 at 15:45
@Jake Alright, thanks. Here it is – Kitegi Dec 30 '15 at 17:01
1

I see this has been closed now. Anyway, just wanted to mention that it is somwhat similar to Why draw diagrams using LaTeX when there are open source tools like OpenOffice?/ – Torbjørn T. Jan 28 '16 at 07:53

pgfplot or matplotlib?

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