The Python Papers

Plotext 6 Released!

Mike Driscoll — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:04:34 GMT

Plotext released version 6.0.0 recently. Plotext is a Python package for creating plots in your terminal. With version 6.0.0, plotext has had a complete rewrite.

The biggest change is that plotest drawing is now done in a C++ kernel. The other big change is that plotext.figure is now the plot. Version 5 offered the same kind of thing, but in separate functions.

Getting plotext

To upgrade to the newest version of plotext, you can use pip, like this:

pip install plotext --upgrade

If you do not already have plotext, then this command will install the latest. Otherwise, pip will upgrade your installation to the latest.

Specific Changes in 6.0.0

Here’s a copy of the main changes from the release page:

C++ kernel: the drawing is done by a new kernel written in C++, compiled during the installation.
The figure: plotext.figure is the plot, holding the tools necessary to build it, from the drawings to the way it looks and rendered; version 5 offered the same as separate functions of the package. When a grid of subplots is present,
plotext.subplot() gives the subplot figure, holding the same tools.
Colored primitives: the pixel, holding a color pair and a style, the colorize string, and the matrix of colored characters a plot is
made of.
The marker: a new object, plotext.marker, holding the symbol drawn at each point together with its coloring, in place of the marker parameter of version 5: it accepts a symbol name, a text of several characters, a
colorize string or a whole matrix.
The signal: a sequence of points together with the settings describing how it is drawn. Every plotting method returns a signal object, which reaches the plot only when passed to plotext.figure.draw(). See the signal page.
The ruler: the object controlling the area of the plot where the numerical ticks appear. See the ruler page.
Command line tool: rewritten, the version 5 subcommands replaced by a chain of methods mirroring the Python ones.
Documentation: the readme files are replaced by a complete separate guide.
Pretty docstrings: the prettydoc module writes colorful docstrings, browsable one by one, as plotext.doc.bar(), or through the interactive menu plotext.doc(), inside the terminal.

Quick Example

If you would like to see how to use plotext, you can write the following basic bar plot code into your favorite Python IDE:

If you type this code out correctly and then run it in your terminal, you should see something like the following:

If you would like to learn more, check out the plotext documentation.

Are Python Tech Books Useful Anymore?

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:53:25 GMT

The question in this article's title has been on my mind a lot this year. Do you find Python tech books useful right now? Let me know! If so, would you pay for them?

The reason this question has been in my mind is that I have run three Kickstarters for three different books in the last year. The first one was for my Vibe Coding Videogames book, which failed.

I decided to go ahead and write that book anyway because I wanted more experience with vibe-coding and working with agents. The book’s sales have been abysmal which lines up with the failure of the Kickstarter. But I learned a lot and it was fun to do.

Next, I did a Kickstarter for Python Typing, a book all about type hinting in Python and type checkers. That Kickstarter barely got funded, so I wrote that one too. That book had actually been in my head for several years, so it was pretty easy to write. I also learned a lot about type hinting and the new Python type checkers!

However, besides the Kickstarter funds, that book’s sales have been pretty bad as well. I knew it was a niche topic going in, but with type hinting being so prevalent now, I thought it would do a bit better.

Lastly, I tried doing a Kickstarter for Python 101, 3rd Edition. This has been my most popular book, by far. However, that Kickstarter failed utterly. It raised even less than Python Typing!

I have noticed my Python blog has been shedding readers as well, and while this newsletter has stayed pretty steady at around 8500 subscribers, it’s been stuck at that subscriber amount for at least a year or more. I would have expected it to keep growing, even if it was slowly, but that hasn’t been the case.

I know other authors have noticed this trend as well. So with that in mind, what do you think? Do you find Python tech books useful now that you can simply ask AI to figure it all out for you? Are there still any topics where you find AI inadequate and wish there were better documentation?

Let me know! I still enjoy writing, but I’ve been getting so little feedback of late that it’s hard to know if I am really reaching anyone besides bots these days.

Creating a Line Chart with Matplotlib and Python

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:27:19 GMT

Creating plots, charts, and graphs is the very purpose of a plotting package, such as Matplotlib. You can plot all the standard charts you can think of with Matplotlib and Python. These charts can help you show how data changes over time. For example, you might want to plot the temperatures of your home city over several months or years.

By plotting thes…

Timing Your Python Code with Built-in Libraries

Mike Driscoll — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:52:40 GMT

Sometimes you want to know why your code is slow. The process of determining the slowness is called profiling. In this article, you will look at using some of Python’s internal libraries to help you track down your slow code.

Using timeit

Python comes with a module called timeit. You can use it to time small code snippets. The timeit module uses platform-…

Python 101 - Creating a Logging Decorator

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:35:51 GMT

Logging boilerplate can make adding logging to your code more complex. One workaround is to wrap up your logging code in a decorator. Then, you can add a decorator to any functions that you want to add logging to.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

What is a decorator?
Creating an exception logging decorator
Passing a logger to a decorator

You wil…

Logging from Multiple Modules with Python

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:02:50 GMT

As a beginner, you usually write your application code in a single file. But soon, you’ll find that you have hundreds or thousands of lines of code in a file, which can become hard to manage.

Then, you break up your code into multiple files. In Python, each Python file is considered a module. A group of related modules is called a package.

Why does that m…

Adjusting Image Sharpness with Python and Pillow

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:12:47 GMT

Photographers try to take photos that are in focus, or sharp. When they fail to do so, the images are blurry. You can sometimes make a blurry image look better by using a sharpening technique. You can also sharpen an image that is already in focus to make it look even better. You should try both methods on your photos as one may work better depending on…

Python 101 3rd Edition Kickstarter Launch

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:05:29 GMT

For years, Python 101 has helped readers take their first steps into programming. Whether you’re a complete beginner, a student, or someone looking to learn Python for work or personal projects, the goal has always been the same: make learning Python approachable, practical, and enjoyable.

Python has continued to evolve, and it’s time for the book to evo…

Adjusting Image Brightness with Python and Pillow

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:11:50 GMT

If you have been following this newsletter, you will recall learning about changing an image's contrast and adjusting its color balance with Python. Today you will tackle the subject of image brightness!

Image brightness is a way to measure the intensity or luminosity of an image after it has been captured. Pillow’s ImageEnhance module allows you to modi…

An Intro to Spiel – Creating Presentations in Your Terminal with Python

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:22:44 GMT

Have you ever wanted to create a presentation in your computer’s terminal? While this is an uncommon need, a clever open source developer has provided a solution to this problem! The project is called Spiel, and while it is currently archived, the idea is pretty cool. Spiel uses the Rich package to create the slides for your presentation. Note: while th…

New Book Release: Python Typing

Mike Driscoll — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:48:04 GMT

I am happy to announce that my latest book, Python Typing, is now available on all platforms. You can get your copy on Gumroad or Leanpub or Amazon

Python has had type hinting support since Python 3.5, over TEN years ago! However, Python’s type annotations have changed repeatedly over the years. In Python Typing: Type Checking for Python Programmers, you…

Changing Image Contrast with Python and Pillow

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:19:35 GMT

In the last article, you learned how to adjust an image’s color balance. Today you will learn how to change the contrast in an image.

Contrast is defined as the difference between dark and light in an image. A high-contrast image will have bright highlights and nice, dark shadows. Colors are usually bold and display texture. A low-contrast image, on the …

Python eBook and Course Summer Sale

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:44:27 GMT

It’s officially summer, and I am bringing you some HOT Python deals today! Get 33% off almost all my books and courses on Gumroad today using the following H5N5F7K

You can start learning the basics of Python with Python 101, or get more targeted learning with my book, Python Logging. If you want to create a user interface, then you might enjoy Creating T…

Adjusting Image Color Balance with Python

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:09:54 GMT

Pillow includes the ImageEnhance A module that contains some classes you can use to enhance your images. All of the included classes implement a common interface via the enhance() method. This makes learning how to use ImageEnhance easier.

You can read more about these classes in the documentation.

In this article, you will focus only on adjusting an imag…

Python Logging - Working with Filters

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 20:34:11 GMT

Python’s logging module provides support for filters. You can add a Filter to a Handler or a Logger object for more sophisticated filtering than you can get through log levels.

Python’s documentation gives the following example of how you might use a logging filter:

A filter initialized with ‘A.B’ will allow events logged by loggers ‘A.B’, ‘A.B.C’, ‘A.B.C…

How to Get TIFF Tag Data with Python

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:33:53 GMT

Last week, you learned how to get EXIF metadata from your JPEG files. This week, you will learn how to get similar data from the TIFF image format.

Pillow provides a similar dictionary for TIFF images in its TiffTags module. If you need a TIFF image, you can use this one, which is a cover from one of the author's other books on ReportLab:

You can create y…

How to Get Image EXIF Data with Python

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:40:55 GMT

Digital photographs of the JPG filetype include a type of metadata that is known as Exchangeable Image File Format or simply Exif. You can access these tags using the PIL.ExifTags module.

You can learn more about this module by checking out its documentation.

In this article, you will focus on getting this image metadata using Pillow.

Getting Exif Tag Data

…

How to Resize a Photo with Python

Mike Driscoll — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:13:15 GMT

Sometimes you will find yourself wanting to resize a photo. I usually do this for photos I plan to email or post on a website, since some of my images can be quite large. Normal people use an image editor. I usually do as well, but for fun, I thought I would look into how to do it in Python.

The quickest way to do this is to use the Pillow package, which…

Python 101 - How to Scrape a Website

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:48:09 GMT

The Internet is the host of much of the world’s information, both past and present. You can find history, news, comics, and much more on the Internet. As a software developer, you might want to gain access to the troves of data that exist on the Internet. Some web pages provide a free or paid Application Programming Interface (API) that you can use to p…

Convert a Photo to Black and White in Python

Mike Driscoll — Tue, 12 May 2026 17:42:18 GMT

Black-and-white images aren’t for everyone. I personally like to play around with them, as you can sometimes take a boring photo and turn it into something dramatic. I have also rescued a drab photo by turning it black and white. If you want to convert a photo you took to black and white programmatically, the Pillow package has you covered. In this arti…