Python Graphics: A Reference for Creating 2D and 3D Images

Use Python’s built-in features to create innovative graphics for data visualization and technical illustrations. This book goes beyond simple commands and libraries to explain how to not only display but also rotate, shade, and edit graphics for any purpose.

Starting with the essential Python functions to set up a plotting space and produce 2 and 3-dimensional objects, you’ll learn how to construct more complex objects, translate and rotate them, remove hidden lines, introduce shading to add realism, and project images to visualize any dataset. The final chapter includes several worked applications in science and engineering including planetary models, which you can adapt for your own use.

Written for developers who want to harness Python’s capabilities to fine-tune their images, Python Graphics covers the different commands for plotting dots, lines, arrows, or arcs, creating custom plotting grids, correcting distortions, adding text and labels to illustrations, manipulating arcs and circles, specify and use colors, and more. Armed with these techniques and core math skills, you’ll be ready to create and customize detailed technical illustrations or data visualizations.

What You’ll Learn

• Use Python′s built-in commands for plotting, removing distortions, and rotating objects
• Create and edit 2D and 3D objects
• Develop illustrations for scientific and engineering applications

Who This Book Is For

Python developers looking for tips on how to create illustrations and visualizations, as well as scientists, engineers, or students using Python. It assumes familiarity with vectors, matrices, geometry and trigonometry.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Essential Python Commands and Functions
Chapter 2: Graphics in Two Dimensions
Chapter 3: Graphics in Three Dimensions
Chapter 4: Perspective
Chapter 5: Intersections
Chapter 6: Hidden Line Removal
Chapter 7: Shading
Chapter 8: 2D Data Plotting
Chapter 9: 3D Data Plotting
Chapter 10: Demonstrations
Appendix A: Where to Get Python
Appendix B: Planck’s Radiation Law and the Stefan-Boltzmann Equation