Matplotlib not using latex font while text.usetex==True

Question

I want to create labels to my plots with the latex computer modern font. However, the only way to persuade matplotlib to use the latex font is by inserting something like:

Answer 1

The default Latex font is known as Computer Modern:

from matplotlib import rc
import matplotlib.pylab as plt

rc('font', **{'family': 'serif', 'serif': ['Computer Modern']})
rc('text', usetex=True)

x = plt.linspace(0,5)
plt.plot(x,plt.sin(x))
plt.ylabel(r"This is $\sin(x)$", size=20)
plt.show()

Answer 2

I am using matplotlib 1.3.1 on Mac OSX, add the following lines in matplotlibrc works for me

text.usetex : True
font.family : serif 
font.serif  : cm

Using = leads to a UserWarning: Illegal line

Answer 3

The marked answer can be enabled by default by changing a few lines in the matplotlibrc file:

text.usetex = True
font.family = serif 
font.serif = cm