Saving Plots to File

Sometimes, you'll want to save your plots for later, such as to include them in a report or share with a colleague.

Matplotlib makes this easy using the savefig() function.

Note: In this notebook, the savefig() function is used for demonstration purposes only, so you cannot download the PNG file. If you run the code in your local environment, you can download the image file.

Use plt.savefig("filename.ext") to export the current plot.

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import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [1, 2, 3, 4]
y = [10, 20, 25, 30]

plt.plot(x, y)
plt.title("Trend Line")
plt.savefig("plot.png")  # Saves the image file

You can use various formats: "png", "jpg", "svg", "pdf", etc.

Make sure to call savefig() before plt.show() — otherwise, the saved image might be empty.

You can adjust image resolution using the dpi (dots per inch) parameter.

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plt.savefig("plot_high_res.png", dpi=300)

This is useful when preparing plots for printing or publishing.

You can save a plot without calling plt.show(). This is helpful when generating many charts automatically.

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plt.plot(x, y)
plt.title("Autosave Example")
plt.savefig("autosave.png")

No plot will display, but the file will be saved.