quantum-circuit-drawer 1.1.1

A Matplotlib-based library for drawing quantum circuits, plotting measurement results, and comparing outputs across several quantum ecosystems with one consistent public API.

Quantum Circuit Drawer

quantum-circuit-drawer is a Matplotlib-based library for drawing quantum circuits, exporting them to LaTeX, plotting measurement results, and comparing outputs across several quantum ecosystems with one consistent public API.

The main idea is simple:

• build your circuit or result object the way you normally would
• call one public function
• get a stable result object back

What You Can Do

The library is centered on a few practical workflows that match normal scripts:

Workflow	Public API	Typical use
Analyze one circuit	analyze_quantum_circuit(...)	Inspect framework, size, mode, pages, operations, and diagnostics without rendering
Draw one circuit	draw_quantum_circuit(...)	Render a Qiskit, Cirq, PennyLane, MyQLM, CUDA-Q, OpenQASM 2/3, or IR circuit
Export one circuit to LaTeX	circuit_to_latex(...)	Generate quantikz or basic tikzpicture snippets for papers, notes, or slides
Compare circuits	compare_circuits(...)	Show before/after or multi-circuit structure, for example transpilation levels
Plot one result distribution	plot_histogram(...)	Plot counts, quasi-probabilities, marginals, or framework-native result objects
Compare result distributions	compare_histograms(...)	Overlay two or more ideal, sampled, baseline, or hardware distributions

Quick Start

These are the three most common patterns:

Draw a circuit

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

from quantum_circuit_drawer import draw_quantum_circuit

circuit = QuantumCircuit(2, 1)
circuit.h(0)
circuit.cx(0, 1)
circuit.measure(1, 0)

draw_quantum_circuit(
    circuit,
    output_path="bell.png",
    show=False,
)

Export the same circuit to LaTeX

from quantum_circuit_drawer import DrawMode, circuit_to_latex

latex_result = circuit_to_latex(circuit, mode=DrawMode.PAGES)
print(latex_result.source)

Plot counts

from quantum_circuit_drawer import plot_histogram

plot_histogram(
    {"00": 51, "01": 14, "10": 9, "11": 49},
    show=False,
)

For everyday use, prefer direct kwargs such as mode=, view=, sort=, top_k=, show=, and output_path=. The public configuration objects are still available for advanced styling, hover behavior, themes, adapter options, and per-side comparison overrides:

• DrawConfig for circuit rendering
• HistogramConfig for single histograms
• CircuitCompareConfig for side-by-side circuit comparison
• HistogramCompareConfig for histogram comparison

Each public config is now grouped into typed blocks ordered by responsibility:

• circuit drawing uses DrawConfig(side=..., output=...)
• circuit comparison uses CircuitCompareConfig(shared=..., compare=..., output=...)
• single histograms use HistogramConfig(data=..., view=..., appearance=..., output=...)
• histogram comparison uses HistogramCompareConfig(data=..., compare=..., output=...)

Structured Logging

The package can also emit structured logs for day-to-day debugging:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import LogProfile, configure_logging

configure_logging(level="INFO", profile=LogProfile.SUMMARY)

Two good starting points are:

• normal script debugging: profile="summary" or profile="detail" with level="INFO"
• managed or histogram interaction debugging: profile="interactive" with level="DEBUG"

level still controls severity in the standard Python logging way. profile controls which structured event families are shown:

• summary keeps API lifecycle, saved-output, diagnostics, and warnings/errors
• detail adds internal non-interactive pipeline events
• interactive also includes interactive.* events such as viewport, selection, topology, and histogram state changes

When you need a runnable example, start with examples/logging_showcase.py.

If you want to inspect logs from code instead of reading terminal output, use the capture helper:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import capture_logs, draw_quantum_circuit

with capture_logs(level="INFO", profile="detail") as capture:
    result = draw_quantum_circuit(circuit)

print(capture.entries[0].event)
print(capture.to_dicts()[0]["request_id"])

capture_logs(...) is opt-in, keeps existing handlers in place, and returns both raw records and stable structured entries.

Visual Gallery

The library renders normal static images, managed exploration views, 3D topology scenes, and result distributions with the same public API shape.

Static 2D circuit	Managed 2D exploration	3D topology view

Install

Inside your local .venv:

The core package supports Python 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13. Optional framework extras can have narrower platform support depending on their upstream packages. The base install declares Matplotlib 3.10.9+ and NumPy 1.26+; optional extras currently use Qiskit 2.0+, Cirq Core 1.6+, PennyLane 0.42+, MyQLM 1.11+, CUDA-Q 0.14+ on Linux, and ipympl 0.10+.

Windows PowerShell:

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install quantum-circuit-drawer

Linux or WSL:

.venv/bin/python -m pip install quantum-circuit-drawer

If you only need saved images, that install is enough. If you also want interactive Matplotlib windows inside WSL2, pip install is not always enough on its own because Linux distributions often ship Tk as a separate system package. On Ubuntu or Debian under WSL2, install it once with:

sudo apt install python3-tk

Then verify GUI support from the same virtual environment:

.venv/bin/python -m tkinter

If that test window does not open, keep using show=False or output_path=... and check Troubleshooting.

Install only the extras you need:

Windows PowerShell:

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qiskit]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qasm3]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[cirq]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[pennylane]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[myqlm]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[notebook]"

Linux or WSL:

.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qiskit]"
.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qasm3]"
.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[cirq]"
.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[pennylane]"
.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[myqlm]"
.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[notebook]"

CUDA-Q is Linux/WSL2-only because the upstream package is not available for native Windows:

.venv/bin/python -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[cudaq]"

Use the notebook extra when you want Jupyter hover, managed circuit controls, or interactive histograms with %matplotlib widget. It installs ipympl without making notebook tooling part of the base package.

Support matrix

This is the production support contract for the current release.

Input path	Support level	Platform notes
Internal IR	Strong support	Core built-in path on Windows and Linux
Qiskit	Strong support	Primary external backend on Windows and Linux
OpenQASM 2 text and .qasm files	Strong support through the Qiskit extra	Install quantum-circuit-drawer[qiskit]; works on Windows and Linux
OpenQASM 3 text and .qasm3 files	Strong support through Qiskit plus qiskit-qasm3-import	Install quantum-circuit-drawer[qasm3]; works on Windows and Linux when Qiskit's importer is available
Cirq	Best-effort on native Windows	Accepts cirq.Circuit and cirq.FrozenCircuit; prefer Linux or WSL for the most reliable repeated runs
PennyLane	Best-effort on native Windows	Prefer Linux or WSL for the most reliable repeated runs
MyQLM	Scoped adapter + contract support	Accepts qat.core.Circuit, Program, and QRoutine; adapter contract is covered, but it is not a first-class multiplatform CI backend
CUDA-Q	Linux/WSL2 only	Supports closed kernels plus scalar cudaq_args for runtime-argument kernels; upstream CUDA-Q is not available for native Windows

Choose Your First Task

If you want to...	Start here
Inspect a circuit before rendering	Analyze a circuit
Draw a circuit from a supported framework	Draw one circuit
Draw OpenQASM 2/3 text or a .qasm / .qasm3 file	Draw OpenQASM
Generate images from your terminal	Command line
Save a render from a script without opening a window	Save directly to a file
Export LaTeX for papers or notes	Export a circuit to LaTeX
Plot counts or probabilities	Plot one histogram
Compare circuit versions	Compare circuits
Compare distributions	Compare histograms
Build a circuit without a framework dependency	Build with public IR tools
Learn the full user-facing feature set	Extended guide
Explore framework-specific demos	Recommended demos

Command Line

The package installs a small qcd command for the common "make me an image" workflow. It saves files without opening Matplotlib windows by default; add --show when you also want a window.

Windows PowerShell:

qcd draw bell.qasm --output bell.png --view 3d
qcd histogram counts.json --output counts.png

Linux or WSL:

qcd draw bell.qasm --output bell.png --view 3d
qcd histogram counts.json --output counts.png

qcd draw accepts OpenQASM text or .qasm / .qasm3 files. qcd histogram accepts JSON mappings such as {"00": 10, "11": 6}, can select nested payloads with --data-key counts, and supports --reverse-bits when a source reports bitstrings in the opposite order.

Draw One Circuit

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

from quantum_circuit_drawer import draw_quantum_circuit

circuit = QuantumCircuit(2, 1)
circuit.h(0)
circuit.cx(0, 1)
circuit.measure(1, 0)

result = draw_quantum_circuit(circuit, show=False)

figure = result.primary_figure
axes = result.primary_axes

This same shape works for the supported framework objects and for the public IR types.

For text styling, the default circuit style now uses use_mathtext="auto". That keeps visible labels such as wire names and gate names in plain text by default, while still using MathText automatically for parameter subtitles when it improves symbolic notation such as theta, phi, or pi/2.

Analyze A Circuit Without Rendering

Use analyze_quantum_circuit(...) when you want a quick summary before opening windows or saving images:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import analyze_quantum_circuit

analysis = analyze_quantum_circuit(circuit)

summary = analysis.to_dict()

The analysis path prepares the same normalized circuit pipeline as drawing, but it does not render, call show(), or save output_path.

All public result objects also support post-render export helpers. Circuit results can call result.save("circuit.png"), result.save_all_pages("pages"), and result.to_dict(). Histogram results can also call result.to_csv("histogram.csv").

Draw OpenQASM

OpenQASM input uses Qiskit as the parser. Install the Qiskit extra for OpenQASM 2, and install the qasm3 extra when you want OpenQASM 3 support:

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qiskit]"
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install "quantum-circuit-drawer[qasm3]"

You can pass OpenQASM 2 or OpenQASM 3 text directly:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import draw_quantum_circuit

qasm = """
OPENQASM 2.0;
include "qelib1.inc";
qreg q[2];
creg c[1];
h q[0];
cx q[0],q[1];
measure q[1] -> c[0];
"""

result = draw_quantum_circuit(qasm, show=False)

Or draw a .qasm / .qasm3 file directly. framework="qasm" is optional when the path ends in .qasm or .qasm3, but it is useful when you want to be explicit:

from pathlib import Path

from quantum_circuit_drawer import draw_quantum_circuit

result = draw_quantum_circuit(
    Path("bell.qasm"),
    framework="qasm",
    show=False,
)

Draw CUDA-Q With Runtime Arguments

CUDA-Q is Linux/WSL2-only because the upstream package is not available for native Windows. Closed kernels work directly; kernels that take scalar runtime arguments use adapter_options={"cudaq_args": (...)}:

import cudaq

from quantum_circuit_drawer import (
    CircuitRenderOptions,
    DrawConfig,
    DrawSideConfig,
    draw_quantum_circuit,
)

kernel, size, theta = cudaq.make_kernel(int, float)
qubits = kernel.qalloc(size)
kernel.rx(theta, qubits[0])
kernel.mz(qubits)

result = draw_quantum_circuit(
    kernel,
    framework="cudaq",
    show=False,
    config=DrawConfig(
        side=DrawSideConfig(
            render=CircuitRenderOptions(
                adapter_options={"cudaq_args": (3, 0.25)},
            )
        ),
    ),
)

Save Directly To A File

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

from quantum_circuit_drawer import draw_quantum_circuit

circuit = QuantumCircuit(2, 1)
circuit.h(0)
circuit.cx(0, 1)
circuit.measure(1, 0)

draw_quantum_circuit(
    circuit,
    output_path="bell.png",
    show=False,
)

This is the most common script workflow when you want a deterministic export without opening a GUI window.

Export A Circuit To LaTeX

Use circuit_to_latex(...) when you want the same circuit as source text instead of a Matplotlib figure:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import DrawMode, LatexBackend, circuit_to_latex

latex_result = circuit_to_latex(
    circuit,
    backend=LatexBackend.QUANTIKZ,
    mode=DrawMode.PAGES,
)

print(latex_result.source)

This is useful for papers, lecture notes, or slide decks where you want to keep editing the diagram on the LaTeX side.

Plot One Histogram

Counts

from quantum_circuit_drawer import (
    HistogramAppearanceOptions,
    HistogramConfig,
    plot_histogram,
)

result = plot_histogram(
    {"000": 51, "001": 14, "010": 9, "111": 49},
    sort="value_desc",
    top_k=3,
    show=False,
    config=HistogramConfig(
        appearance=HistogramAppearanceOptions(show_uniform_reference=True),
    ),
)

Quasi-probabilities

from quantum_circuit_drawer import (
    HistogramAppearanceOptions,
    HistogramConfig,
    plot_histogram,
)

result = plot_histogram(
    {0: 0.52, 3: -0.08, 4: 0.17, 7: 0.39},
    kind="quasi",
    show=False,
    config=HistogramConfig(
        appearance=HistogramAppearanceOptions(
            draw_style="soft",
            show_uniform_reference=True,
        ),
    ),
)

Joint marginal on selected qubits

from quantum_circuit_drawer import plot_histogram

result = plot_histogram(
    {"101": 2, "001": 1, "111": 3},
    qubits=(0, 2),
    show=False,
)

qubits=(0, 2) keeps the requested order, so the marginal labels are built as q0 followed by q2.

Compare Two Or More Circuits

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit, transpile

from quantum_circuit_drawer import compare_circuits

source = QuantumCircuit(3, 3)
source.h(0)
source.cx(0, 1)
source.cx(1, 2)
source.measure(range(3), range(3))

transpiled = transpile(source, basis_gates=["u", "cx"], optimization_level=2)

result = compare_circuits(
    source,
    transpiled,
    left_title="Original",
    right_title="Transpiled",
    show=False,
)

CircuitCompareResult gives you:

• a compact summary figure by default
• one DrawResult per circuit, with each circuit rendered in its own normal pages_controls figure unless you request mode="full" or pass caller-owned axes
• structural metrics such as operation counts, measurement counts, swap counts, and differing layers

For three or more circuits, pass the extra circuits as positional arguments and provide titles=(...). The summary table switches from a two-side delta column to one column per circuit; lower aggregate counts are highlighted in green and higher aggregate counts in red for each row.

Compare Two Or More Histograms

from quantum_circuit_drawer import compare_histograms

ideal = {"00": 0.5, "11": 0.5}
sampled = {"00": 473, "01": 19, "10": 24, "11": 484}

result = compare_histograms(
    ideal,
    sampled,
    sort="delta_desc",
    left_label="Ideal",
    right_label="Sampled",
    show=False,
)

This is useful when you want one aligned state space and quick metrics such as total variation distance. On interactive Matplotlib backends, the compare legend is clickable so you can focus one selected series at a time while keeping the axes and hover state in sync.

For three or more distributions, pass extra data objects after the first two and set series_labels=(...). Sorting with sort="delta_desc" uses the largest spread across all visible series.

Build With Public IR Tools

If you do not want to depend on a framework, you can build directly with the public IR tools or use CircuitBuilder.

CircuitBuilder

from quantum_circuit_drawer import CircuitBuilder, draw_quantum_circuit

circuit = (
    CircuitBuilder(2, 1, name="builder_demo")
    .h(0)
    .cx(0, 1)
    .measure(1, 0)
    .build()
)

draw_quantum_circuit(circuit, show=False)

Raw CircuitIR

If you need complete control over wires, operations, and metadata, use the public quantum_circuit_drawer.ir types directly. The best minimal example for that path is the bundled ir-basic-workflow demo.

Modes, Hover, And 3D

The most common choices are:

• DrawMode.AUTO: notebook -> pages, normal script -> pages_controls
• DrawMode.PAGES: easiest for notebook display and export-oriented flows
• DrawMode.PAGES_CONTROLS: best default for normal scripts
• DrawMode.SLIDER: best when you want a viewport through a wide circuit
• DrawMode.FULL: best when the circuit fits comfortably in one scene

Managed pages_controls and slider figures now enable keyboard navigation and block toggling by default. That includes arrows, Home / End, PageUp / PageDown, Tab / Shift+Tab, Esc, 0, ?, and +/- where the mode supports them. In pages_controls, Up grows the visible page stack, Down shrinks it, and Tab / Shift+Tab move column by column even when that means stepping to the next or previous page. Use CircuitRenderOptions(keyboard_shortcuts=False, double_click_toggle=False) if you want to turn those interactions off.

Example:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import (
    CircuitAppearanceOptions,
    CircuitRenderOptions,
    DrawConfig,
    DrawMode,
    DrawSideConfig,
    OutputOptions,
    draw_quantum_circuit,
)

result = draw_quantum_circuit(
    circuit,
    config=DrawConfig(
        side=DrawSideConfig(
            render=CircuitRenderOptions(mode=DrawMode.PAGES_CONTROLS),
            appearance=CircuitAppearanceOptions(
                hover={"enabled": True, "show_size": True},
            ),
        ),
        output=OutputOptions(show=False),
    ),
)

For 3D:

from quantum_circuit_drawer import (
    CircuitRenderOptions,
    DrawConfig,
    DrawMode,
    DrawSideConfig,
    OutputOptions,
    draw_quantum_circuit,
)

result = draw_quantum_circuit(
    circuit,
    config=DrawConfig(
        side=DrawSideConfig(
            render=CircuitRenderOptions(
                view="3d",
                mode=DrawMode.PAGES_CONTROLS,
                topology="grid",
                topology_qubits="used",
                topology_resize="error",
                topology_menu=True,
            ),
        ),
        output=OutputOptions(show=False),
    ),
)

The built-in 3D topologies ("line", "grid", "star", "star_tree", and "honeycomb") are flexible builders, so they can be used with arbitrary positive qubit counts. The "honeycomb" builder uses an IBM-inspired compact hexagonal footprint. For real Qiskit devices, build a static topology with HardwareTopology.from_qiskit_backend(backend). If a topology has more physical nodes than the circuit uses, topology_qubits="used" shows only the allocated nodes while topology_qubits="all" shows the full hardware footprint. If a functional or periodic topology is too small, topology_resize="fit" rebuilds it for the circuit size; static HardwareTopology instances stay fixed and raise a clear error when they are too small.

If you want to see the managed 2D controls intentionally exercised instead of configuring them from scratch, start with qiskit-2d-exploration-showcase.

If you want the same style of managed exploration in 3D, start with qiskit-3d-exploration-showcase.

Recommended Demos

The fastest way to see the current strengths of the library is to run one of the bundled showcase demos:

Demo id	What it highlights
qiskit-2d-exploration-showcase	Managed 2D exploration with Wires: All/Active, Ancillas: Show/Hide, folded-wire markers, and contextual Collapse / Expand
qiskit-3d-exploration-showcase	Managed 3D exploration with topology-aware selection, persistent expanded-block highlights, and contextual Collapse / Expand
qiskit-control-flow-showcase	Expanded Qiskit control-flow frames, visible switch summaries, and open controls
qiskit-composite-modes-showcase	Compact versus expanded composite instructions on the same workflow
openqasm-showcase	OpenQASM text input through the Qiskit parser path
ir-basic-workflow	Framework-free rendering from the public CircuitIR types
public-api-utilities-showcase	Analysis, result metadata, page exports, histogram CSV export, and circuit_to_latex(...)
caller-managed-axes-showcase	Circuit, histogram, and comparison rendering on caller-managed axes
style-accessible-showcase	Accessible circuit and histogram styling
diagnostics-showcase	Diagnostics, warnings, and resolved-mode metadata
cli-export-showcase	Terminal-oriented qcd JSON histogram export
qiskit-backend-topology-showcase	Qiskit backend topology conversion into a 3D hardware view
cirq-native-controls-showcase	Cirq native controls, classical conditions, and CircuitOperation provenance
pennylane-terminal-outputs-showcase	PennyLane mid-measurement, qml.cond(...), plus terminal output boxes
myqlm-structural-showcase	Compact composite routines on the native MyQLM adapter path
cudaq-kernel-showcase	The supported CUDA-Q subset with scalar runtime arguments, reset, basis measurements, and static control summaries
compare-circuits-multi-transpile	One Qiskit source circuit compared with several transpilation optimization levels
compare-histograms-ideal-vs-sampled	A lightweight comparison workflow with no framework extra required, including clickable legend toggles on interactive backends
compare-histograms-multi-series	A multi-series overlay for ideal, noisy, raw hardware, and mitigated distributions
histogram-quasi-nonnegative	A compact histogram demo for non-negative quasi-probabilities that keep the vertical axis anchored at zero

In the examples catalog, each showcase has both a direct script filename such as examples/qiskit_2d_exploration_showcase.py and, when you use the shared runners, a matching demo_id such as qiskit-2d-exploration-showcase.

If you are running the bundled examples from this repository rather than installing the published package, install the optional extras you need inside your local .venv, for example .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e ".[qiskit]" on Windows PowerShell or .venv/bin/python -m pip install -e ".[qiskit]" on Linux or WSL.

Windows PowerShell:

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\qiskit_2d_exploration_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\qiskit_3d_exploration_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\qiskit_control_flow_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\qiskit_composite_modes_showcase.py --composite-mode expand
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\openqasm_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\ir_basic_workflow.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\public_api_utilities_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\caller_managed_axes_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\style_accessible_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\diagnostics_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\cli_export_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\qiskit_backend_topology_showcase.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\compare_circuits_multi_transpile.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\compare_histograms_ideal_vs_sampled.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\compare_histograms_multi_series.py
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe examples\histogram_quasi_nonnegative.py

Linux or WSL:

.venv/bin/python examples/qiskit_2d_exploration_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/qiskit_3d_exploration_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/qiskit_control_flow_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/qiskit_composite_modes_showcase.py --composite-mode expand
.venv/bin/python examples/openqasm_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/ir_basic_workflow.py
.venv/bin/python examples/public_api_utilities_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/caller_managed_axes_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/style_accessible_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/diagnostics_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/cli_export_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/qiskit_backend_topology_showcase.py
.venv/bin/python examples/compare_circuits_multi_transpile.py
.venv/bin/python examples/compare_histograms_ideal_vs_sampled.py
.venv/bin/python examples/compare_histograms_multi_series.py
.venv/bin/python examples/histogram_quasi_nonnegative.py

The CLI export showcase writes examples/output/cli-export-showcase.png by default. Use --output to choose another PNG path.

The full curated catalog, including the mapping between runner demo_id values and direct script filenames, lives in examples/README.md.

Documentation

Use these pages depending on what you need:

• Documentation index
• Installation
• Getting started
• User guide
• Extended guide
• API reference
• Frameworks
• Recipes
• Troubleshooting
• Examples
• Extension API
• Development
• Changelog