Minimalist library to generate SVG views of scientific data
Just wanted to share with HN a simple/minimal open source Python library that generates SVG files visualizing two dimensional data and distributions, in case others find it useful or interesting. I wrote it as a fun project, mostly because I found that the standard libraries in Python generated unnecessarily large SVG files. One nice property is that I can configure the visuals through CSS, which allows me to support dark/light mode browser settings. The graphs are specified as JSON files (the repository includes a few examples). It supports scatterplots, line plots, histograms,…
In plain words
This open-source Python library generates lightweight SVG visualizations of scientific data, including scatterplots, line plots, histograms, and box plots. Graphs are configured using JSON files and styled with CSS, enabling automatic dark and light mode support. It's designed for developers and researchers who need compact, customizable data visualizations without the bloated file sizes produced by standard Python plotting libraries.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Just wanted to share with HN a simple/minimal open source Python library that generates SVG files visualizing two dimensional data and distributions, in case others find it useful or interesting. I wrote it as a fun project, mostly because I found that the standard libraries in Python generated unnecessarily large SVG files. One nice property is that I can configure the visuals through CSS, which allows me to support dark/light mode browser settings. The graphs are specified as JSON files (the repository includes a few examples). It supports scatterplots, line plots, histograms, and box plots, and I collected examples here: https://github.com/alefore/mini_svg/blob/main/examples/READM... I did this mostly for the graphs in an article in my blog (https://alejo.ch/3jj). Would love to hear opinions. :-)
Does the same job
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- IMI made a 3D SVG Renderer that projects textures without rasterization2025 · seve.blog · ▲206
- VOVisprex – Open-source, in-browser data visualisation tool for CSV files2024 · docs.visprex.com · ▲194
Hello HN. I've always found writing data visualisation scripts boring and repetitive in data science workflows earlier in my career, so I built this tool to automate it. The available methods are based on my experience in econometrics where histograms and scatterplots were the starting points to check data distributions. The link is to the documentation and the app is freely available at https://visprex.com, and if you're curious about the implementation it's open source at https://github.com/visprex/visprex. I'd appreciate any comments and feedback!
- GSGenerate SVG parliament charts (JavaScript)2017 · github.com · ▲56
- ESEasy SVG charts for your static site, no JavaScript2014 · chartspree.com · ▲129
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