Making basic, good-looking plots in Python is tough. Matplotlib gives you great control, but at the expense of being very detailed. The rise of pandas has made Python the go-to language for data wrangling and munging but many people are still reluctant to leave R because of its outstanding data viz packages. ggplot is a port of the popular R package ggplot2. It provides a high level grammar that allow users to quickly and easily make good looking plots. So say good-bye to matplotlib, and hello to ggplot as your everyday Python plotting library!

1. ggplot for
python
Greg Lamp

2. ggplot
● What is it?
● Alternatives
● How it works
● Why should I use it?
● Tutorial

3. Here I am on
the Internet.
Founder/CTO @ Yhat
Hi, I’m Greg!

4. What is
ggplot?

6. DSL for graphics

7. DSL for graphics
scatterplot
histogram
labels
color
shape

8. What about
matplotlib?

10. matplotlib
syntax, api,
default themes,
learning curve

11. matplotlib
maturity, ipython,
customization, community
syntax, api,
default themes,
learning curve

12. “Facet all
things”
www.gregreda.com

14. matplotlib ggplot

15. What about
d3.js?

16. d3.js

17. ggplot

18. ggplot d3.js

19. How it works

20. Format

21. ggplot

23. data frame

24. “aesthetics”

25. Aesthetics

29. color

30. shape

31. size

32. ...fill, alpha, slope,
intercept, ymin,
ymax, ...

33. Geoms,
Stats, &
Scales

34. geom_point

35. geom_area

36. ...there are many

37. stat_smooth

38. ...there are a few

39. scale_color_brewer

40. scale_color_gradient

41. ...there are many

42. Layers

44. +

45. + +

46. + +
ggplot() geom_point() stat_smooth()+ +

47. ggplot() +
geom_point() +
stat_smooth()

48. Why is this
good?

49. Makes “reasonable
assumptions”

50. not real colors

51. matplotlib freaks

52. still not real colors
...but i can guess
what you mean

54. Concise yet
expressive

58. Looks pretty good
(and is easy to customize)

60. Seaborngithub.com/mwaskom/seaborn

61. Tutorial

62. github.com/glamp/ggplot-tutorial/
OR
http://blog.yhathq.com/posts/facebook-ggplot-tutorial.html

63. What’s next

64. http://ggplot.yhathq.com

65. Thanks!
@theglamp
g@yhathq.com