[Matplotlib-devel] mplcairo 0.1 release

[Benjamin Root]

Congratulations to Antony for his hard work on this important backend!

As far as I am concerned, the cairo backend is the future of matplotlib.
Test this backend out for yourselves and help us take matplotlib to the
next level in high-quality charting!

Cheers!
Ben Root

On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Antony Lee <anntzer.lee at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I am pleased to announce the release of mplcairo 0.1
>
> # Description
>
> mplcairo is a Matplotlib backend based on the well-known cairo library,
> supporting output to both raster (including interactively) and vector
> formats.  In other words, it provides the functionality of Matplotlib's
> {,qt5,gtk3,wx,tk,macos}{agg,cairo}, pdf, ps, and svg backends.
>
> Per Matplotlib's standard API, the backend can be selected by calling
>
>     matplotlib.use("module://mplcairo.qt")
>
> or setting your MPLBACKEND environment variable to `module://mplcairo.qt`
> for
> Qt5, and similarly for other toolkits.
>
> The source tarball, and Py3.6 manylinux and Windows wheels, are available
> on
> PyPI (I am looking for help to generate the OSX wheels).
>
> See the README for more details.
>
> # Why a new backend?
>
> Compared to Matplotlib's builtin Agg and cairo backends, mplcairo presents
> the
> following features:
>
> - Improved accuracy (e.g., with marker positioning, quad meshes, and text
>   kerning).
> - Support for a wider variety of font formats, such as otf and pfb, for
> vector
>   (PDF, PS, SVG) backends (Matplotlib's Agg backend also supports such
> fonts).
> - Optional support for complex text layout (right-to-left languages, etc.)
>   using Raqm.  **Note** that Raqm depends on Fribidi, which is licensed
> under
>   the LGPLv2.1+.
> - Support for embedding URLs in PDF (but not SVG) output (requires
>   cairo≥1.15.4).
> - Support for multi-page output both for PDF and PS (Matplotlib only
> supports
>   multi-page PDF).
> - Support for custom blend modes (see `examples/operators.py`).
>
> See the README for more details.
>
> # Changelog from mplcairo 0.1a1 to mplcairo 0.1
>
> - Integration with libraqm now occurs via dlopen() rather than being
> selected
>   at compile-time.
> - Various rendering and performance improvements.
> - On Travis, we now run Matplotlib's test suite with mplcairo patching the
>   default Agg renderer.
>
> Enjoy,
>
> Antony Lee
>
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>
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