Re: [Matplotlib-users] alternative to show()? too many figures

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Eric" ==   <er...@jo...> writes:

    Eric> Dear ones, I discovered Matplotlit only yesterday, and it's
    Eric> great. But I've got one problem. Since I am using the GTK
    Eric> backend, I have to use the show() function. But I have
    Eric> hundreds of figures and each to be written into a file. If I
    Eric> put the show() at the end of my program, the machine just
    Eric> can't handle it. If I put the show() in a loop, then I have
    Eric> close the hundreds of picture windows by hand. Is there a
    Eric> solution to this problem?

Yes, you want to use the Agg backend for bulk pure image generation.
You don't need to use show and no GUI pops up.

You can specify Agg from the command line by doing

  > python myscript.py -dAgg

Or from within your script by doing

    import matplotlib
    matplotlib.use('Agg')
    from matplotlib.matlab import *

    plot([1,2,3])
    savefig('myfile')

Agg provides PNG output, which in my opinion is superior to jpeg for
line art.

These issues are covered in the FAQ, especially "Can I just generate
images without having a window popup?"

  http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/faq.html

You should probably also check out

  http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/tutorial.html

and

  http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/backends.html

Good luck!   
JDH