Saving to PNG, SVG, PDF in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Saving Plots as PNG, SVG, and PDF Files with Matplotlib

📖 Scenario: You have created a simple line plot to show sales data over a week. Now, you want to save this plot as different file types so you can share it easily or include it in reports.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to save a matplotlib plot as PNG, SVG, and PDF files using Python.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a simple line plot using matplotlib

Save the plot as a PNG file

Save the plot as an SVG file

Save the plot as a PDF file

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Saving plots in multiple formats is useful when sharing data visualizations with colleagues or including them in documents and presentations.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often need to export charts and graphs in different file formats for reports, dashboards, or publications.

1

Create a simple line plot

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Create two lists: days with values ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri"] and sales with values [100, 120, 90, 110, 130]. Use plt.plot(days, sales) to create a line plot.

Matplotlib

# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Create lists days and sales
# Plot sales over days
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use import matplotlib.pyplot as plt to import the plotting library. Then create the lists exactly as shown. Finally, call plt.plot(days, sales) to draw the line.

2

Save the plot as a PNG file

Use plt.savefig to save the current plot as a PNG file named "sales_plot.png".

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

days = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri"]
sales = [100, 120, 90, 110, 130]

plt.plot(days, sales)
# Save the plot as a PNG file named "sales_plot.png"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.savefig("sales_plot.png") to save the plot as a PNG file.

3

Save the plot as an SVG file

Add a line to save the plot as an SVG file named "sales_plot.svg" using plt.savefig.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

days = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri"]
sales = [100, 120, 90, 110, 130]

plt.plot(days, sales)
plt.savefig("sales_plot.png")
# Save the plot as an SVG file named "sales_plot.svg"
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.savefig("sales_plot.svg") to save the plot as an SVG file.

4

Save the plot as a PDF file and display it

Add a line to save the plot as a PDF file named "sales_plot.pdf" using plt.savefig. Then add plt.show() to display the plot.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

days = ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri"]
sales = [100, 120, 90, 110, 130]

plt.plot(days, sales)
plt.savefig("sales_plot.png")
plt.savefig("sales_plot.svg")
# Save the plot as a PDF file named "sales_plot.pdf"
# Display the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.savefig("sales_plot.pdf") to save as PDF. Use plt.show() to display the plot window.