MPLPPT

mplppt is a simple library made from some hacky scripts I used to use to convert matplotlib figures to powerpoint figures. Which makes this a hacky library, I guess 😀.

Goal

mplppt seeks to implement an alternative savefig function for matplotlib figures. This savefig function saves a matplotlib figure with a single axis to a powerpoint presentation with a single slide containing the figure.

Installation

pip install mplppt

Supported Conversions

mplppt supports [partly] conversion of the following matplotlib objects:

Lines [matplotlib.lines.Line2D]
Rectangles [matplotlib.patches.Rectangle]
Polygons [matplotlib.patches.Polygon]
pcolormesh [matplotlib.collections.QuadMesh]
text [matplotlib.text.Text]

so far mplppt does not (yet) support (out of many other things):

markers (including tick marks)
linestyle

Simple Example

An example of all different conversions available for mplppt. Below we give an example of how all these objects can be combined into a single plot, which can then be exported to powerpoint:

# plot [Line2D]
x = np.linspace(-1,5)
y = np.sin(x)
plt.plot(x,y,color='C1')

# rectangle
plt.gca().add_patch(mpl.patches.Rectangle((0, 0), 3, 0.5))

# polygon
plt.gca().add_patch(mpl.patches.Polygon(np.array([[5.0,1.0],[4.0,-0.2],[2.0,0.6]]), color="red"))

# pcolormesh
x = np.linspace(0,1, 100)
y = np.linspace(0,1, 100)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x,y)
Z = X**2 + Y**2
plt.pcolormesh(X,Y,Z)

# text
text = plt.text(0,0,'hello')

# set limits
plt.ylim(-0.5,1)

# Save figure to pptx
mplppt.savefig('first_example.pptx')

# show figure
plt.show()

Which results in a powerpoint slide which looks as follows:

Cool! What else can I do with this?

You are not bound to using matplotlib! The mplppt repository contains some standard powerpoint shapes that you can use. Try something like:

ppt = mplppt.Group() # Create a new group of objects
ppt += mplppt.Rectangle(name='rect', x=0, y=0, cx=100, cy=100, slidesize=(10,5)) # add an object to the group
ppt.save('second_example.pptx') # export the group as a ppt slide

Is any of this documented?

No.

How does this work?

The repository contains a template folder, which is nothing more than an empty powerpoint presentation which is unzipped. After making a copy of the template folder and adding some xml code for the shapes, the modified folder is zipped into a .pptx file.

flaport/mplppt