This guide is for contributors to understand conventions and expectations for

quality control of Matplotlib written content.

..seealso::

For more information about contributing, see the:ref:`documenting-matplotlib`

section.

Expository Language

Formatting

The following guidelines specify how to incorporate code and use appropriate

formatting for Matplotlib documentation.

Code

Matplotlib is a Python library and follows the same standards for

documentation.

Comments

Examples of Python code have comments before or on the same line.

| Correct| Incorrect|

| ::| ::|

| # Data| years = [2006, 2007, 2008]|

| years = [2006, 2007, 2008]| # Data|

| ::||

| years = [2006, 2007, 2008] # Data||

Outputs

When generating visuals with Matplotlib using ``.py`` files in examples,

display the visual with ``show()`` to provide display the visual.

Keep the documentation clear of Python output lines.

| Correct| Incorrect|

| ::| ::|

| plt.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])| plt.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])|

| plt.show()||

| ::| ::|

| fig, ax = plt.subplots()| fig, ax = plt.subplots()|

| ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])| ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])|

| fig.show()||

reStructuredText

Matplotlib uses reStructuredText Markup for documentation. Sphinx helps to

transform these documents into appropriate formats for accessibility and

visibility.

reStructuredText standards

- `reStructuredText Specifications<https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html>`_

- `Quick Reference Document<https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/rst/quickref.html>`_

Lists

Bulleted lists are for items that do not require sequencing. Numbered lists are