How to get interactive plot of pyplot when using pycharm

Question

I am using PyCharm as the IDE for python, and when you make a plot (with the same code like pyplot.plot(...), pyplot.show()) pycharm displays it within its IDE. However, this looks like a static image. When you zoom in, the plot starts to blur.

In other IDE, pyplot creates an interactive plot. When you zoom in, it basically re-plots the curve. And you can also drag the plot. Is there anyway in PyCharm I can have the interactive plot from pyplot?

Disable Settings | Tools | Python Scientific | Show plots in tool window. It should do the trick. — Pavel Karateev
– Pavel Karateev, Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 9:40
As Pavel described here (intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/…) you may also need to change your backend e. g. using matplotlib.use('Qt5Agg') or matplotlib.use('TkAgg') — MichaelA
– MichaelA, Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 6:39
@PavelKarateev I don't see "Python Scientific" under "Tools". Searching settings for plots or scientific doesn't show anything either. — endolith
– endolith, Commented Feb 27, 2023 at 22:41
@endolith The new path is Settings | Tools | Python Plots | Show plots in tool window — Samuel Håkansson
– Samuel Håkansson, Commented Jan 19, 2024 at 12:21

James Paul Mason · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-20 18:19:43Z

20

Just need to change your plotting backend.

If you're on macOS:

import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
mpl.use('macosx')

plt.plot(range(10))

should produce a new window that looks like this:

Or if you prefer a different backend or are on Windows (as @MichaelA said)

import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
mpl.use('Qt5Agg')  # or can use 'TkAgg', whatever you have/prefer

plt.plot(range(10))

answered Feb 20, 2020 at 18:19

James Paul Mason

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1 Comment

hlongmore Over a year ago

For anyone curious, I'd just like to mention that both this answer and the comment from Pavel Karateev on the question for disabling Show plots in tool window result in an interactive plot for me on Mac OS X 10.14.6 with PyCharm 2020.1.1.

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