In this chapter, you got to learn a little more about matplotlib's origins and the latest features that were released at the time of writing this book. You've seen the software that we're going to use, including the version of the Python programming language that we've chosen. Furthermore, we've given you a peek into the future of this book (and matplotlib) with a custom IPython Notebook, which highlights the Seaborn and Pandas projects.

In the next couple of chapters, we're going to focus on matplotlib's internals. In particular, Chapter 2, The matplotlib Architecture will cover the architecture of the project, giving you an insight into how it all works together.