charite-plot 0.2.0

Matplotlib and Altair themes for Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

charite-plot

A Python package with a Charité-styled Matplotlib theme, visual identity colour palettes, and an Altair theme — ported from the charite R package.

Installation

pip install charite-plot                   # Matplotlib only
pip install "charite-plot[altair]"         # with Altair support

Examples

Visualize your data with theme_charite() to match the Charité corporate style.

Preview the available colour palettes.

Quick start

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from charite_plot.mpl_themes import theme_charite, apply_theme

apply_theme(theme_charite())

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [4, 7, 3])
ax.set_title("My chart")
plt.show()

Use as a context manager to scope the theme to a single figure:

from charite_plot.mpl_themes import theme_charite, using

with using(theme_charite(palette="goldelse")):
    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    ax.bar(["A", "B", "C"], [3, 7, 5])

Altair

from charite_plot.altair_themes import enable
import altair as alt

enable()

chart = alt.Chart(df).mark_bar().encode(...)

Customise with keyword arguments:

enable(palette="berryseason", font_size=13)

API overview

Symbol	Description
mpl_themes.theme_charite()	Returns a matplotlib rcParams dict for the Charité theme
mpl_themes.apply_theme(params)	Applies a theme dict permanently to rcParams
mpl_themes.using(params)	Context manager: applies theme temporarily
altair_themes.theme_charite()	Returns a Vega-Lite config dict for the Charité theme
altair_themes.enable(**kwargs)	Registers and enables the theme in Altair
PALETTES	Dict of 10 named colour palettes
make_palette(name, n, reverse)	Subsample or interpolate any palette
CHARITE_COLORS	Dict of all 27 hex colour constants

Fonts

The fallback chain follows the official Charité brand guidelines:

Charité Text Office → Charit? Text Office → Calibri → DejaVu Sans → sans-serif

DejaVu Sans ships with Matplotlib and is always available as the penultimate fallback; sans-serif lets the browser or system choose if nothing else matches (important for Altair/Vega-Lite). To override the preferred font:

apply_theme(theme_charite(font="Arial"))

How to cite

If you use charite-plot in your work, please cite it as:

@software{ramezani2026chariteplot,
  author    = {Ramezani, Pedram},
  title     = {charite-plot: Matplotlib and Altair Themes for Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin},
  year      = {2026},
  version   = {0.2.0},
  url       = {https://github.com/pedramezani/charite-plot},
  license   = {MIT},
}

Acknowledgements

This package is based on the original charite R package developed by Johannes Julius Mohn.

License

MIT © 2026 Pedram Ramezani

The original charite R package by Johannes Julius Mohn is likewise MIT licensed.