Installing Matplotlib in Windows 10 64bits

Question

Could anyone tell me what files I should download and which statements I must execute in the command line to install Matplotlib?

I have Python 2.7.13 on Windows 10 64 bit.
These are the files I unzipped:

All downloaded from: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#numpy

Commands I executed:

python -m pip install -U pip setuptools
python -m pip install matplotlib

python -m pip install -U pip

I am getting these two errors when checking if Numpy and Matplotlib are installed.

>>> import numpy

**Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#3>", line 1, in <module>
    import numpy
  File "numpy\__init__.py", line 142, in <module>
    from . import add_newdocs
  File "numpy\add_newdocs.py", line 13, in <module>
    from numpy.lib import add_newdoc
   File "numpy\lib\__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from .type_check import *
  File "numpy\lib\type_check.py", line 11, in <module>
    import numpy.core.numeric as _nx
  File "numpy\core\__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
    raise ImportError(msg)
ImportError: 
Importing the multiarray numpy extension module failed.  Most
likely you are trying to import a failed build of numpy.
If you're working with a numpy git repo, try `git clean -xdf` (removes   all
files not under version control).  Otherwise reinstall numpy.
Original error was: DLL load failed: %1 no es una aplicación Win32     válida.**

>>> import matplotlib

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#4>", line 1, in <module>
    import matplotlib
  File "matplotlib\__init__.py", line 122, in <module>
    from matplotlib.cbook import is_string_like, mplDeprecation, dedent,     get_label
  File "matplotlib\cbook.py", line 33, in <module>
import numpy as np
  File "numpy\__init__.py", line 142, in <module>
    from . import add_newdocs
  File "numpy\add_newdocs.py", line 13, in <module>
    from numpy.lib import add_newdoc
  File "numpy\lib\__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from .type_check import *
  File "numpy\lib\type_check.py", line 11, in <module>
    import numpy.core.numeric as _nx
  File "numpy\core\__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
    raise ImportError(msg)
ImportError: 
Importing the multiarray numpy extension module failed.  Most
likely you are trying to import a failed build of numpy.
If you're working with a numpy git repo, try `git clean -xdf` (removes     all
files not under version control).  Otherwise reinstall numpy.

Original error was: DLL load failed: %1 no es una aplicación Win32     válida.

Answer 1

This is a common issue for windows users. And you will probably need precompiled packages for some other libraries as well, e.g. scipy.

You will find on SourceForge the numpy superpack whose name structure is numpy-X.X.X-win32-superpack-python2.7.exe, e.g. numpy-1.9.2-win32-superpack-python2.7.

On Pypi (Python Package Index), you will find the matplotlib library, whose name structure is matplotlib-X.X.X.win32-py2.7.exe, e.g matplotlib-1.4.3.win32-py2.7.exe.

Answer 2

Installing matplotlib through pip by automatically downloading the files from the python index as you're trying to do here will most probably fail for windows.

There are two main options:

1. Install a complete distribution like Anaconda, Canopy, WinPython, etc. which already has all the respective libraries included.

2. Use precompiled wheels. A source for those is indeed this site by Christoph Gohlke. You would then need to make sure to install all dependencies first and matplotlib last. Starting with numpy is the best, then other dependencies, matplotlib last. To install those use

   pip install <filename of wheel>
   

   e.g.

   pip install numpy‑1.13.0rc1+mkl‑cp27‑cp27m‑win_amd64.whl