Hi everyone
What do you use Matplotlib for? What sorts of visualizations do you make? Any specific domain?
I’m a third-year Electronics Engineering student at VJTI Mumbai with a minor in Data Science. I use Matplotlib mainly for data visualization — line plots, bar charts, histograms, and time-series graphs. Most of the time I use it to explore datasets and understand patterns quickly.
Are you interested in any part of the Matplotlib API specifically?
Yes — I’m particularly interested in the rendering, interactivity, and canvas/backend parts. I recently built an interactive 3D portfolio website using Three.js and React Three Fiber (I did follow a YouTube tutorial). It gave me good introduction about mouse events, and real-time updates on a canvas-like layer. That experience made me curious about how Matplotlib handles similar things internally.
3D portfolio website link → Vikash Portfolio
Which GSoC project are you interested in working on?
I’m interested in the Overlay Layer API project (“overlay” layer API for interactive backends).
I read the full project idea on the GSoC 2026 and issue #30515. Right now, even a simple crosshair (like the Cursor widget) forces a full figure redraw on every mouse move, which feels pretty laggy. The goal is to add a new overlay layer that lives in the backend, can redraw independently, keeps a logical representation of elements, and knows where the Axes are. The minimum deliverable is a fast, smooth crosshair that also works with shared Axes.
Do you have experience/domain knowledge relevant to the project?
I have a minor in Data Science and have worked with interactive dashboards (Legal Document Summarizer — https://legal-document-summarizer-project-nuaghjqlum4c5wk5l5tvwg.streamlit.app/).
I’ve already started contributing to Matplotlib:
- FIX: Prevent crash when removing a subfigure containing subplots by Vikash-Kumar-23 · Pull Request #31323 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub (merged)
- ENH: Support partial figsize with None (#31400) by Vikash-Kumar-23 · Pull Request #31413 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub (open)
What’s your programming experience? How many years, which languages, what sorts of projects?
I’ve been programming for about 3 years now.
Main languages: Python, C++, and JavaScript.
Thanks!
Vikash Kumar
GitHub: Vikash-Kumar-23 (Vikash Kumar) · GitHub
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