ansiplot 0.1.0

Legible console plotting in Python.

ANSIplot

A small utility library for legible console plotting in Python. Plot differences remain mostly legible, even for highly overlapping plots and small canvas dimensions. ANSI is used to color console output.

Quickstart

Install the library with pip install ansiplot. Then prepare some data for drawing three curves: two similar cosine functions that lie very close to each other, and a sine function.

import math

x = [(i - 100) * 0.01 for i in range(200)]
y1 = [math.cos(value * 10) for value in x]
y2 = [math.cos(value * 10 + 0.1) for value in x]
y3 = [math.sin(value * 10) for value in x]

Now, import ansiplot and create a rectangle 60x10 canvas. This has specific scaling limits, but you can also use a Scaled canvas to automatically detect those limits. For demonstration purposes, hide the default axis to add some on specific locations at the end with bar and hbar. Those forcefully rewrite entries, whereas other plots try to preserve some overwritten information from being hidden if they can help it.

import ansiplot

plot = ansiplot.Rect(60, 10, 
     xlimits=(-1, 1), 
     ylimits=(-1, 1), 
     axis=False)
plot.plot(x, y1, title="cos")
plot.plot(x, y2, title="cos offset")
plot.plot(x, y3, title="cos")
# plot a custom axis
plot.bar(0, (-1, 1), symbol="▕▎");
plot.hbar((-1, 1), 0, symbol=Pretty.xaxis, title="x=0 or y=0")
# show
plot.show()

You can export the text manually with plot.text(). Both this and the show method can create colorless versions (useful for exporting to files) and control whether legends are shown. Here is an example for exporting the canvas to a file:

with open("example.txt", "w") as file:
    file.write(plot.text(colorless=True, legend=True))