Saving charts

This page has 0 threads | Add post

Blogs

Finding our blogs useful? Please consider helping us to share more!

An introduction to using matplotlib in Python to create charts Part five of a six-part series of blogs
If you want to create charts in Python, the chances are that you'll do it using the matplotlib module. This blog will get you started and explain some of its foibles! Getting started with matplotlib Subplots, figures and axes (explicit references) An introduction to formatting matplotlib charts Working with different chart types Saving charts (this blog) Using style sheets to format charts consistently

An introduction to using matplotlib in Python to create charts

Part five of a six-part series of blogs

If you want to create charts in Python, the chances are that you'll do it using the matplotlib module. This blog will get you started and explain some of its foibles!

Posted by Andy Brown on 02 June 2025

In this blog

Saving charts
Closing charts

To understand fully about saving matplotlib charts you'll need to learn all about backends, but fortunately most people will be able to get away with two simple functions: savefig and close.

Saving charts

You can save a chart using the savefig function:

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# get the number of days of Xmas ( 1 to 12)

days_till_xmas = np.arange(1,13)

# panic levels increase exponentially

panic_level = days_till_xmas ** 2

# chart panic level against days till Xmas

plt.plot(days_till_xmas,panic_level)

# add a title

plt.title('Panic levels over the 12 days of Christmas')

# label the axes

plt.ylabel("Panic level")

plt.xlabel("Day number")

# save this chart as a file

plt.savefig(

"c:/wiseowl/Chart example.webp",

bbox_inches='tight'

)

# show the chart (you must save it first)

plt.show()

This code would produce a webp format image file, shown below in Visual Studio Code:

To produce a different type of image (such as PNG, for example), just use a different file extension in your code.

Notice that if you are showing your chart you need to save it first! This is because when you show a chart on screen you will then have to close your chart window before your code can resume and this action will dispose of the chart that you are intending to save.

Closing charts

You don't have to display a chart on screen to create an image of it, as this sample code shows:

# save this chart as a file

plt.savefig(

"c:/wiseowl/Chart example.webp",

bbox_inches='tight'

)

# close this chart

plt.close(1)

This would save the chart in question and then close it. Notice that (with wild inconsistency) Python numbers your charts from 1, not from 0. You could close all of your open charts like this:

# close all open charts

plt.close('all')

It's probably easier to create charts one at a time, though!

Parts of this blog
Getting started with matplotlib Subplots, figures and axes (explicit references) An introduction to formatting matplotlib charts Working with different chart types Saving charts (this blog) Using style sheets to format charts consistently

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

This blog has 0 threads

Add a new post

ALL BLOGS

PYTHON BLOGS

PYTHON BLOGS

Saving charts

Closing charts

Head office

London

Manchester