Issue with installing matplotlib in windows

Question

I am trying to install matplotlib with windows but i can t do it. I am a beginner with python so my mistake could be basic and/or my question silly but i can t find an answer anywhere.

I went to the matplotlib website and install all the dependencies using easy_install. i am having issue with freetype and png. I am copying below the end of the message that shows up when i type "easy_install matplotlib"

    gtkagg: no  [Requires pygtk]
                 tkagg: no  [The C/C++ header for Tk (tk.h) could not be
                        found.  You may need to install the development
                        package.]
                 wxagg: no  [requires wxPython]
                   gtk: no  [Requires pygtk]
                   agg: yes [installing]
                 cairo: no  [cairocffi or pycairo not found]
             windowing: yes [installing, installing]
OPTIONAL LATEX DEPENDENCIES
                dvipng: no
           ghostscript: no
                 latex: no
               pdftops: no
OPTIONAL PACKAGE DATA
                  dlls: no  [skipping due to configuration]
============================================================================
                        * The following required packages can not be built:
                        * freetype, png
error: Setup script exited with 1

As you can see i have 2 packages missing and i don t know how to install them. I have try to download them myself and putting them in the "sites-packages" subfolder of my python folder but nothing seems to work.

Answer 1

What you are trying to do requires all kinds of compilers and headers to be installed, as these modules rely on doing work in C which needs to be compiled for your system. Please consider installing the anaconda python distribution; it is free and has all the precompiled packages to do STEM work with python.

They make a 2.7 and 3.5 version, I recommend the 3.5 but that's just me :-) Good luck, hope you can get it working!

https://www.continuum.io/downloads#_windows