Installation¶

dartwork-mpl is a library of utilities and assets for matplotlib that makes creating publication-quality figures easier.

Tip

The live install picker above auto-detects your OS and lets you switch between uv, pip, Poetry, and conda with one click — the command box updates and the Copy button copies the exact line you’ll paste into your terminal.

Quick Install¶

dartwork-mpl is on PyPI, so a standard install needs no Git. Requires Python 3.10+. The package includes matplotlib style presets, curated color palettes, and layout utilities.

🚀 uv

uv is a blazingly fast Python package manager written in Rust. It’s recommended for modern Python projects.

# Add to your project dependencies (recommended — updates pyproject.toml)
uv add dartwork-mpl

# Or install into the current environment
uv pip install dartwork-mpl

Why uv? It’s 10-100x faster than pip, handles dependency resolution better, and integrates seamlessly with modern Python workflows.

📦 pip

Use the standard Python package installer. This works with any Python environment.

# Install from PyPI
pip install dartwork-mpl

# Upgrade to the latest release
pip install --upgrade dartwork-mpl

Optional extras¶

The core install is intentionally lean — add an extra only when you need it:

Extra	Enables	Example
`[notebook]`	`dm.show()` inline SVG display in Jupyter	`pip install "dartwork-mpl[notebook]"`
`[mcp]`	the MCP server for AI assistants	`uv add "dartwork-mpl[mcp]"`
`[ui]`	the interactive parameter viewer	`pip install "dartwork-mpl[ui]"`

Plain text install matrix¶

Static fallback for the live install picker — useful when JavaScript is disabled (AI agents, terminal browsers, search-engine indexing). The command is the same on every OS; the only differences are which package manager you have and whether you want to add the package to a project file (uv add, poetry add) or install into the current environment (uv pip, pip install).

Manager	Command
`uv` (project)	`uv add dartwork-mpl`
`uv` (env)	`uv pip install dartwork-mpl`
`pip`	`pip install dartwork-mpl`
`Poetry`	`poetry add dartwork-mpl`
`conda + pip`	activate the env, then `pip install dartwork-mpl`

On all three platforms (macOS / Linux / Windows) the commands are identical apart from shell quoting; Windows users in cmd.exe may need to drop the quotes around extras (e.g. pip install dartwork-mpl[mcp]).

Latest development version¶

To track the unreleased main branch instead of the PyPI release (this path does need Git):

uv add "git+https://github.com/dartworklabs/dartwork-mpl@main"
# or
pip install "git+https://github.com/dartworklabs/dartwork-mpl@main"

Contributors working from a local clone use an editable install (uv pip install -e ".[dev]") — see the repository README.

Basic Import¶

Once installed, import dartwork-mpl alongside matplotlib:

import dartwork_mpl as dm
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

dm.style.use('scientific')  # Apply a style preset

Available presets: scientific, report, minimal, presentation, poster, web, dark, and -kr variants for Korean. See the Quick Start for a full end-to-end example and Styles and Presets for a detailed comparison.

Verify Installation¶

After installation, verify that dartwork-mpl is properly installed and accessible:

import dartwork_mpl as dm

print(dm.__version__)     # Current installed version
print(dm.list_styles())   # Available style presets

If these commands run without errors, you’re all set! 🎉

Troubleshooting: If you encounter import errors, make sure:

Your Python environment is activated (if using virtual environments)

The package was installed in the correct environment

You have matplotlib installed as a dependency

Next Steps¶

🚀 Quick Start

Ready to create your first publication-quality figure? Follow the end-to-end workflow — apply a style, plot, and export in under a minute.

→ Quick Start