Matplotlib is a versatile Python library that generates plots for data visualization. With the numerous plot types and refined styling options available, it works well for creating professional figures for presentations and scientific publications. Matplotlib provides a simple way to produce figures to suit different purposes, from slideshows, high-quality poster printing, and animations to web-based interactive plots. Besides typical 2D plots, basic 3D plotting is also supported.

On the development side, the hierarchical class structure and object-oriented plotting interface of Matplotlib make the plotting process intuitive and systematic. While Matplotlib provides a native graphical user interface for real-time interaction, it can also be easily integrated into popular IPython-based interactive development environments, such as Jupyter notebook and PyCharm.