## page was renamed from I wish to generate graphics and images directly into a file, but I'm confused as to just what i need to do this with python
= How to generate graphics and write the image directly to a file =

Have a look at the GraphicsAndImages page. It depends somewhat on the kind of graphics you want to produce: some libraries like [[http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/|matplotlib]] are focused on graphs and charts, whereas the PythonImagingLibrary supports both bitmap manipulation as well as line and shape drawing (and other similar operations) using the !ImageDraw module.

Many on-screen graphics packages also support drawing onto and the saving of bitmaps (eg. [[PyGame]]), and it is possible to draw to off-screen bitmaps or devices in various graphical user interface toolkits and frameworks - see [[GuiProgramming]] for details of the different choices.

An example of printing some off-screen picture using PyQt (rather than writing a file, although the principles are the same) can be found in the following message: [[http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/a4514729bc3430a1|"Placing graphics & text on printed page - jan06call.jpg (0/1)"]]. -- PaulBoddie
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