A Python interface for the Generic Mapping Tools
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A beautiful map is worth a thousand words. To truly understand how powerful PyGMT is, play with it online on Binder! For a quicker introduction, check out our 3 minute overview!
Afterwards, feel free to look at our Tutorials, visit the Gallery, and check out some external PyGMT examples!
PyGMT is a library for processing geospatial and geophysical data and making publication-quality maps and figures. It provides a Pythonic interface for the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT), a command-line program widely used across the Earth, Ocean, and Planetary sciences and beyond.
- Make GMT more accessible to new users.
- Build a Pythonic API for GMT.
- Interface with the GMT C API directly using ctypes (no system calls).
- Support for rich display in the Jupyter notebook.
- Integration with the scientific Python ecosystem:
numpy.ndarrayorpandas.DataFramefor data tables,xarray.DataArrayfor grids, andgeopandas.GeoDataFramefor geographical data.
Simple installation using mamba:
mamba install --channel conda-forge pygmtIf you use conda:
conda install --channel conda-forge pygmtFor other ways to install pygmt, see the full installation instructions.
As a starting point, you can open a Python interpreter or a Jupyter notebook, and try the following example:
import pygmt
fig = pygmt.Figure()
fig.coast(projection="N15c", region="g", frame=True, land="tan", water="lightblue")
fig.text(position="MC", text="PyGMT", font="80p,Helvetica-Bold,red@75")
fig.show()You should see a global map with land and water masses colored in tan and lightblue, respectively. On top, there should be the semi-transparent text "PyGMT". For more examples, please have a look at the Gallery and Tutorials.
- Most discussion happens on GitHub. Feel free to open an issue or comment on any open issue or pull request.
- We have a Discourse forum where you can ask questions and leave comments.
Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
Please read our Contributing Guide to see how you can help and give feedback.
We want your help. No, really.
There may be a little voice inside your head that is telling you that you're not ready to be an open source contributor; that your skills aren't nearly good enough to contribute. What could you possibly offer?
We assure you that the little voice in your head is wrong.
Being a contributor doesn't just mean writing code. Equally important contributions include: writing or proof-reading documentation, suggesting or implementing tests, or even giving feedback about the project (including giving feedback about the contribution process). If you're coming to the project with fresh eyes, you might see the errors and assumptions that seasoned contributors have glossed over. If you can write any code at all, you can contribute code to open source. We are constantly trying out new skills, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. That's how we all improve and we are happy to help others learn.
This disclaimer was adapted from the MetPy project.
PyGMT is a community developed project. See the AUTHORS.md file on GitHub for a list of the people involved and a definition of the term "PyGMT Developers". Feel free to cite our work in your research using the following BibTeX:
@software{
pygmt_2025_15071586,
author = {Tian, Dongdong and
Uieda, Leonardo and
Leong, Wei Ji and
Fröhlich, Yvonne and
Schlitzer, William and
Grund, Michael and
Jones, Max and
Toney, Liam and
Yao, Jiayuan and
Tong, Jing-Hui and
Magen, Yohai and
Materna, Kathryn and
Belem, Andre and
Newton, Tyler and
Anant, Abhishek and
Ziebarth, Malte and
Quinn, Jamie and
Wessel, Paul},
title = {{PyGMT: A Python interface for the Generic Mapping Tools}},
month = mar,
year = 2025,
publisher = {Zenodo},
version = {0.15.0},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15071586},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15071586}
}
To cite a specific version of PyGMT, go to our Zenodo page at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3781524
and use the "Export to BibTeX" function there. It is also strongly recommended to cite
the GMT 6 paper (which PyGMT wraps around). Note
that some modules like dimfilter, surface, and x2sys also have their dedicated
citations. Further information for all these can be found at https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/cite.
PyGMT is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the BSD 3-clause License. A copy of this license is provided in LICENSE.txt.
The development of PyGMT has been supported by NSF grants OCE-1558403 and EAR-1948603.
Other official wrappers for GMT:
PyGMT has adopted SPEC 0 alongside the rest of the scientific Python ecosystem, and made a few extensions based on the needs of the project. Please see Minimum Supported Versions for the detailed policy and the minimum supported versions of GMT, Python and core package dependencies.