matplotlib rc('text', usetex=True) breaks plotting from .ipynb to .py (jupyter --> spyder)

Description of your problem

I loaded a .py file from jupyter to use it in spyder. But the plotting does not work anymore. I narrowed it down to the rc(‘text’, usetex=True) command. I asked this on stackoverflow:

Original Question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40266888/migrating-jupyter-notebook-to-py-file-spyder-basic-plotting-is-killed-by-late

What steps will reproduce the problem?

create a .py script in spyder:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gs

from matplotlib import rc # this is the matplotlib suggestion
rc('font',**{'family':'sans-serif','sans-serif':['Arial']})
rc('text', usetex=True)

mat = np.random.rand(5,5)

fig = plt.figure()
gsall = gs.GridSpec(6, 1)
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(gsall[:])
source1 = ax1.contourf(mat,extend='both',cmap=mpl.cm.viridis)
plt.title('Random field \n test')
plt.colorbar(source1)
plt.show()

run it.

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

I expect a figure with the random matrix and the text, but I get many errors.

Please provide any additional information below

In jupyter notebook everything is fine. In ipython shell I get a figure without the text and no errors.

Versions and main components

• Spyder Version: 2.3.9
• Python Version: 3.5.1
• Operating system: macOS sierra v.10.12.1
• Matplotlib Version: 1.5.1

[ccordoba12]

@ImportanceOfBeingErnest, if you define or extend PATH in your .bashrc and don’t start Spyder in a console but using a graphical menu or launcher, then Spyder is unable to detect those modifications to PATH because it doesn’t read your environment variables before launching. By the way, Pycharm also has this problem, as reported here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/9706384/438386

And I think the same happens in the Jupyter notebook. I mean, I haven’t seen any code to read env vars in Jupyter or IPython. But the problem could be alleviated there because you usually start the notebook server in a console, and so their environment is picked up by the kernels started by it.

To summarize, I don’t know if you could say this is a Spyder problem or people not knowing how env vars work.

[malliwi88]

Hi @louika

I think you only need:

• Latest version of spyder (3.0.1)
• sudo apt-get install dvipng (library for manage latex character conversion on matplotlib)

for you can to reproduce this example over Ipython console without problems with your actual anaconda environment.

I hope this help you.