p5 0.3.0a1

Creative coding in Python

p5

p5 is a Python library that provides high level drawing functionality to help you quickly create simulations and interactive art using Python. It combines the core ideas of Processing — learning to code in a visual context — with Python’s readability to make programming more accessible to beginners, educators, and artists.

Example

p5 programs are called “sketches” and are run as any other Python program. The sketch above, for instance, draws a circle at the mouse location that gets a random reddish color when the mouse is pressed and is white otherwise; the size of the circle is chosen randomly. The Python code for the sketch looks like:

from p5 import *

def setup():
    size(640, 360)
    no_stroke()
    background(204)

def draw():
    if mouse_is_pressed:
        fill(random_uniform(255), random_uniform(127), random_uniform(51), 127)
    else:
        fill(255, 15)

    circle_size = random_uniform(low=10, high=80)

    circle((mouse_x, mouse_y), circle_size)

def key_pressed(event):
    background(204)

run()

Installation

p5 requires Python 3 to run. Once you have the correct version of Python installed, you can run:

$ pip install numpy
$ pip install p5 --user

to install p5.

Features Roadmap

Our end goal is to create a Processing-like API for Python. However, instead of being a strict port of the original Processing API, we will also try to extend it and use Python’s goodness whenever we can.

For now, though, we plan to focus on the following features:

1. Support most 2D drawing primitives and related utility functions from the Processing API (as of the latest release, this is almost done).

2. Support other parts of the Processing API: images, fonts, etc.

3. Port relevant tutorials and reference material from Processing’s documentation.

4. Support live coding of sketches in the Python REPL (here’s a screencast from an earlier prototype).

License

p5 is licensed under the GPLv3. See LICENSE for more details. p5 also includes the following components from other open source projects:

• OpenGL shaders from the Processing project. Licensed under LGPL v2.1. See LICENSES/lgpl-2.1.txt for the full license text.

• Code from the Glumpy project See LICENSES/glumpy.txt for the full license text from the Glumpy project.

All licenses for these external components are available in the LICENSES folder.