Low quality matplotlib inline plots on hidpi display

Issue Report Checklist

• Searched the issues page for similar reports
• Read the relevant sections of the Spyder Troubleshooting Guide and followed its advice
• Reproduced the issue after updating with conda update spyder (or pip, if not using Anaconda)
• Could not reproduce inside jupyter qtconsole (if console-related)
• Tried basic troubleshooting (if a bug/error)
  • Restarted Spyder
  • Reset preferences with spyder --reset
  • Reinstalled the latest version of Anaconda
  • Tried the other applicable steps from the Troubleshooting Guide
• Completed the Problem Description, Steps to Reproduce and Version sections below

Problem Description

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. set a custom high DPI scalling (default 1.5 or any larger value) in spyder Preferences -> General
2. plot a line with matplotlib

import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as pp
pp.figure()
pp.plot(np.arange(100), 'k')
pp.grid()

1. change inline backend figure format to retina

%config InlineBackend.figure_format = 'retina'

1. repeat step 2.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Expected the output to be smooth high quality DPI inline plot after change in inline figure format but instead blurry jagged low quality version is displayed as before

Jupyter notebook run shows correct smooth plot after inline figure format change

Versions

• Spyder version: 3.3.4
• Python version: 3.6.7 64-bit
• Qt version: 5.12.2
• PyQt version: 5.12.1
• Operating System name/version: Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon 4.0.10

Dependencies

IPython >=4.0     :  7.4.0 (OK)
cython >=0.21     :  0.29.6 (OK)
jedi >=0.9.0      :  0.13.3 (OK)
matplotlib >=2.0.0:  3.0.3 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0   :  5.4.1 (OK)
numpy >=1.7       :  1.16.2 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1   :  0.24.2 (OK)
psutil >=0.3      :  5.6.1 (OK)
pycodestyle >=2.3 :  2.5.0 (OK)
pyflakes >=0.6.0  :  2.1.1 (OK)
pygments >=2.0    :  2.3.1 (OK)
pylint >=0.25     :  2.3.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.2.0 :  4.4.3 (OK)
rope >=0.9.4      :  0.14.0 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6    :  2.0.1 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3     :  1.4 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

@dalthviz, please take a look at this one. We need to add a new option in the Inline backend section of our preferences called

[ ] Display images in high resolution

And pass that option to the kernel.

[ryblogs]

No, this hasn’t been addressed yet, but we’ll try to do it in the next couple of months.

For now, you need to increase your DPI manually by going yo the menu

Tools > Preferences > IPython console > Graphics > Inline Backend

and the increasing the Resolution there.

Thank you for revisiting! Much appreciated!