Prerequisites & Notation

Before You Begin

This chapter assumes Matplotlib fluency (Chapter 15) and basic familiarity with LaTeX syntax. You do not need a full LaTeX installation for most features — Matplotlib's built-in mathtext renderer handles common math. A LaTeX installation is only needed for the PGF backend and full-preamble features.

Matplotlib OO API, rcParams, and savefig (Chapter 15)(Review ch15)
Self-check: Can you configure rcParams and save a figure as PDF?
Basic LaTeX math mode syntax
Self-check: Do you know that $\frac{a}{b}$ makes a fraction and $\int_0^1 f(x)\,dx$ makes an integral?
Pandas DataFrames (helpful for auto-tables)
Self-check: Can you create a DataFrame and call df.to_latex()?

Notation for This Chapter

Terms and file formats used in this chapter.

Symbol	Meaning	Introduced
$PGF$	Portable Graphics Format — a TeX-native vector format	s01
$preamble$	LaTeX commands loaded before the document body	s01
$CSV$	Comma-separated values — common data exchange format	s02

← Ch 17 Matplotlib + LaTeX