How to export figures to files from IPython Notebook

Question

I use the IPython Notebook with the --pylab inline option, since I don't want plots to show up in a different window. Now I'd like to save the plots I see in the notebook to PDF or PNG files.

Some code examples use

import matplotlib as plt

plt.savefig("figure.png") # save as png

but this does not seem to work in inline mode.

Of course I could simply save the PNG that is generated out of the browser, but I'd like to do this with a line of Python. I am also interested in PDF export.

Answer 1

try this (note that the files get saved to the default notebook folder):

plot(range(80))
xlabel('foo')
ylabel('bar')
legend(['myline'])
axis([0, 80, 0, 120])
savefig('sample.pdf')

if you want png just change it to 'sample.png'.

Note that the savefig() call should be in the same notebook cell as the plotting commands.