python plotting with greek symbols within labels recommendations?

[michael.s.gilbert at gmail.com]

hello all,

this message is geared toward those of you in the scientific community.
i'm looking for a python plotting library that can support rendering
greek symbols and other various characters on plot axes labels, etc. I
would prefer something that adheres to tex formatting (as implemented
in latex, matlab, etc and has the form $\alpha$ to represent the greek
character alpha for example).

thus far, i've found that matplotlib
(http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/) can do this, albeit the
implementation is so poor that you cannot mix standard text with
symbols on the same plot element.

pygrace (http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mmckerns/software.html) seems to
be able to inherently support symbols, but it doesn't follow the tex
formatting.  it has its own (seemingly arbitrary) syntax.

any thoughts on plotting libraries would be much appreciated.

mike