matplotlib not using matplotlibrc file in IPython

Question

I recently upgraded from matplotlib v1.5.3 from v2.0.0, but with this change, it seems that matplotlib no longer uses my edited matplotlibrc file when plotting figures. When I o

Answer 1

For me, the problem was that the matplotlibrc was working, then iPython was overriding it at the end of the cell. The way to check for this is to import matplotlib and print the plt.rcParams dict in the same cell, then run the same cell again. If it changes between calls, iPython is overriding it.

The fix is to add

c.InteractiveShellApp.matplotlib = 'inline'
c.InlineBackend.rc = {}

to your ipython_config.py. The second line tells iPython not to update the rParams dict.