Install

First, add the package:

import Pkg
Pkg.add("Plots")

# if you want the latest features:
Pkg.pkg"add Plots#master"

The GR backend is included by default, but you can install additional plotting packages if you need a different backend.

Tier 1 support backends (in alphabetical order):

Pkg.add("GR")
# You do not need to add this package because it is the default backend and
# therefore it is automatically installed with Plots.jl. Note that you might
# need to install additional system packages if you are on Linux, see
# https://gr-framework.org/julia.html#installation

Pkg.add("PGFPlotsX")
# You need to have LaTeX installed on your system

Pkg.add("PlotlyJS"); Pkg.add("PlotlyBase")
# Note that you only need to add this if you need Electron windows and
# additional output formats, otherwise `plotly()` comes shipped with Plots.jl.
# In order to have a good experience with Jupyter, refer to Plotly-specific
# Jupyter installation (https://github.com/plotly/plotly.py#installation)

Pkg.add("PyPlot")
# Depends only on PyPlot package

Pkg.add("UnicodePlots")

Tier 2 support backends:

Pkg.add("InspectDR")
Pkg.add("Gaston")

Learn more about backends here.

Finally, you may wish to add some extensions from the Plots ecosystem:

Pkg.add("StatsPlots")
Pkg.add("GraphRecipes")

Initialize

using Plots # or StatsPlots
# using GraphRecipes  # if you wish to use GraphRecipes package too

Optionally, choose a backend and/or override default settings at the same time:

gr(size = (300, 300), legend = false)  # provide optional defaults
pgfplotsx()
plotly(ticks=:native)                  # plotlyjs for richer saving options
pyplot()                               # backends are selected with lowercase names
unicodeplots()                         # plot in terminal
Tip

Plots will use the GR backend by default. You can override this choice by setting an environment variable in your ~/.julia/config/startup.jl file (if the file does not exist, create it). To do this, add e.g. the following line of code: ENV["PLOTS_DEFAULT_BACKEND"] = "PlotlyJS".

Tip

You can override standard default values in your ~/.julia/config/startup.jl file, for example PLOTS_DEFAULTS = Dict(:markersize => 10, :legend => false, :warn_on_unsupported => false).


This documentation is not for the latest stable release, but for either the development version or an older release.
Click here to go to the documentation for the latest stable release.