Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X – Double Click

March 1, 2012April 4, 2013 jiffyclubmac os x, matplotlib, numpy, python, scipy

Update: These instructions are over a year old, though they may still work for you. See the “Install Python” page for the most up-to-date instructions.

I’ve already written a post about installing Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Lion, but it involves a lot of working at the command line, modifying your .bash_profile and dealing with compiler problems. That’s what I’ll call the compile-it-yourself (CIY) method. What I’ll describe below I’ll call the “double click” method.

I personally use the CIY method because it allows me to very easily control what’s installed. With Homebrew and pip I can uninstall and upgrade different things at will, or choose to install bleeding-edge versions. But it’s more hassle than everyone wants and there’s now an easier way using double-click installers.

Until recently the CIY was the only way to get everything working on Lion but now the developers of NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib have all caught up and it’s possible to just download and double-click on a few DMG files to get a basic scientific Python installation working. Once you get to know Python, though, you will undoubtedly want to install some other packages and when that time comes I suggest you use pip.

Note: I’ve provided the names of the most current packages as of March 1, 2012. By the time you do this the versions may have been updated so the most recent versions may not exactly match the names below. Make sure you get the most recent version that is explicitly for Mac OS 10.6-10.7+.

Install Python

Go to the Python download page and download the package called Python 2.7.2 Mac OS X 64-bit/32-bit x86-64/i386 Installer. Double-click the downloaded .dmg file to install Python.

Install NumPy

Go to the NumPy download page and download the package called numpy-1.6.1-py2.7-python.org-macosx10.6.dmg. Install as usual.

Install SciPy

Go to the SciPy download page and download the package called scipy-0.10.1-py2.7-python.org-macosx10.6.dmg. Install as usual.

Install matplotlib

Go to the matplotlib download page and download the package called matplotlib-1.2.0-py2.7-python.org-macosx10.6.dmg. Install as usual.

Congratulations, that should do it! If you ever want to upgrade one of these in the future revisit the appropriate download page and get the latest .dmg file. Fire up Python at a terminal and make sure things worked. The following should work in Python with no errors:

import numpy
import scipy
import matplotlib

Enjoy!

25 thoughts on “Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X – Double Click”

Install Python, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib on Mac OS X | Pen and Pants says:

[…] matplotlib using double-click binary installers (resulting in a much less flexible installation), see this post to learn […]

March 1, 2012 at 10:12 pm Reply
Riata says:

Hi, you can also do this via HomeBrew. Its really easy.

http://jholewinski.org/blog/category/matplotlib/

June 6, 2012 at 1:06 am Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  Yes, I have another post about that, which I mention above: https://penandpants.com/2012/02/24/install-python/
  
  You can use pip to install from a git repo and skip the python setup.py install step you describe in your post. But matplotlib now installs correctly on Lion with a simple pip install matplotlib.
  
  June 6, 2012 at 8:17 am Reply
Erisa says:

Hey, I am using a tool (it is a python script not written by me) which requires all the libraries mentioned in this post to be installed in order to generate graphs.
I have a Mac 10.6 (snow leopard), and successfully followed your instructions. Now I have installed Python 2.7, NumPy 1.6.2, SciPy 0.11.0b1, and Matplotlib 1.1.0
However, I didn’t succeed to run the script.
First error I got was that pylab couldn’t be imported, though from doing “import pylab” from a python shell I could see it was installed.

So I just added the following line to my .profile file:

export PYTHONPATH=”/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages:$PYTHONPATH”

Now I am getting this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/local/bin/tsplot”, line 45, in
from pylab import *
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pylab.py”, line 1, in
from matplotlib.pylab import *
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/__init__.py”, line 133, in
from matplotlib.rcsetup import (defaultParams,
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/rcsetup.py”, line 19, in
from matplotlib.colors import is_color_like
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colors.py”, line 52, in
import numpy as np
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/__init__.py”, line 137, in
import add_newdocs
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/add_newdocs.py”, line 9, in
from numpy.lib import add_newdoc
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/lib/__init__.py”, line 4, in
from type_check import *
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/lib/type_check.py”, line 8, in
import numpy.core.numeric as _nx
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/__init__.py”, line 5, in
import multiarray
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/multiarray.so, 2): Symbol not found: _PyCapsule_Import
Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/multiarray.so
Expected in: flat namespace
in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/multiarray.so

Any idea on how to fix that?

June 22, 2012 at 4:20 am Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  What’s probably happening is that the script is running with the wrong Python. There is a line at the very top of your script that probably looks something like #!/usr/bin/python or similar. Make sure that it says #!/usr/bin/env python and it should automatically select the right Python.
  
  You shouldn’t need to modify the PYTHONPATH. I think the Python installer does that automatically for you.
  
  So, make sure the script has #!/usr/bin/env python at the top and try again.
  
  June 22, 2012 at 8:44 am Reply
  1. ME says:
    
    This worked!!
    
    January 27, 2015 at 7:51 pm
Erisa says:

uh thanks, that was it :)
Saved me a lot of monkey work, since as a workaround i was using the .py python file not the script

June 22, 2012 at 12:20 pm Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  Glad to help!
  
  June 22, 2012 at 1:08 pm Reply
  1. kb1313 says:
    
    I am a neophyte Python user trying to set up NUMPY and SCIPY so I can try TAPPY. Like Erisa I’m getting an error at the multiarray.so line, although it’s a different error . I have Mac OSX 10.6.8, installed Python 2.7.3, then the NUMPY and SCIPY versions as above. When I run import nimby within python, I get the following:
    
    >>> import numpy
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “”, line 1, in
    … [deleted a few lines here]
    File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/__init__.py”, line 5, in
    import multiarray
    ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/multiarray.so, 2): no suitable image found. Did find:
    /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/multiarray.so: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
    
    I don’t understand the error, as the filenames it was looking for and did find look the same. When I open up preferences within the Python Launcher that was installed, there seems to be something related to the fix above: in settings for Python Script, the line for interpreter reads “/usr/local/bin/pythonw” and there is no check at a box to allow override with #! in script. If I change either of those, will it help? (And what does the w at the end of python mean?)
    
    Many thanks for any help you can give me!
    
    September 20, 2012 at 1:13 pm
  2. jiffyclub says:
    
    I think this means that the installed numpy does not match the installed Python. You must take some care when downloading the installers so that they match the Python you installed and your OS version. For example, at the NumPy 1.6.2 download page there is an installer for Python 2.7 and Mac OS 10.6 that is probably your best bet (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/files/NumPy/1.6.2/). Do you recall which NumPy installer you downloaded? The same advice goes for choosing the SciPy and matplotlib installers as well.
    
    I’m not sure you need to worry about anything in the Python Launcher. I’ve never even opened that.
    
    September 20, 2012 at 1:40 pm
  3. keir13 says:
    
    Many thanks for such a quick response! Your opening comment makes overall sense, but I did use the NumPy installer for Python 2.7 and OSX10.6 that you mention. In fact, I initially tried the “latest” installer at the top of the sourceforge page without noticing it is for 2.6, but when it wouldn’t install at all I realized the issue and went to proper installer. However, your initial recommendation at the top of this thread was for installing Python 2.7.2. Maybe if I try deleting 2.7.3 and installing the slightly older version, that will solve the incompatibility issue.
    Thanks again
    
    September 20, 2012 at 2:19 pm
  4. jiffyclub says:
    
    If you’re confident you have a match between your Python and NumPy versions then I’m not sure what’s going on. The difference between 2.7.2 and 2.7.3 shouldn’t matter. The only thing I can recommend is starting over, or maybe going with one of the all-in-one installers for scientific Python. More info on that here: https://penandpants.com/install-python/.
    
    September 20, 2012 at 2:45 pm
  5. keir13 says:
    
    thanks again for your helpful and quick advice. I tried the Enthought academic installer and it worked perfectly.
    
    September 21, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Alfathi ali says:

Thanks a lot, really useful guide. After spending tremendous time, I finally got it working perfectly.

November 8, 2012 at 9:45 am Reply
Dylan says:

Hi there, I was wondering if you could assist me with the following problem? I’m completely new to Python and I might need some ‘hand holding’ to guide me through the installation process. I’m operating on Mac (Snow Leopard) and I have installed Python and its libraries as per suggested above. I believe I have installed iPython and Pandas on the system as well but whenever I tried to launch iPython notebook on the terminal using ‘ipython notebook’, it returns this list of error(?) to me:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/local/bin/ipython”, line 8, in
load_entry_point(‘ipython==1.0.dev’, ‘console_scripts’, ‘ipython’)()
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/frontend/terminal/ipapp.py”, line 390, in launch_new_instance
app.initialize()
File “”, line 2, in initialize
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 84, in catch_config_error
return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/frontend/terminal/ipapp.py”, line 315, in initialize
super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).initialize(argv)
File “”, line 2, in initialize
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 84, in catch_config_error
return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/core/application.py”, line 323, in initialize
self.parse_command_line(argv)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/frontend/terminal/ipapp.py”, line 310, in parse_command_line
return super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).parse_command_line(argv)
File “”, line 2, in parse_command_line
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 84, in catch_config_error
return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 435, in parse_command_line
return self.initialize_subcommand(subc, subargv)
File “”, line 2, in initialize_subcommand
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 84, in catch_config_error
return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/config/application.py”, line 367, in initialize_subcommand
subapp = import_item(subapp)
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/utils/importstring.py”, line 40, in import_item
module = __import__(package,fromlist=[obj])
File “/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.0.dev-py2.6.egg/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/notebookapp.py”, line 41, in
from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
ImportError: No module named jinja2

Additionally, how do I go about checking if iPython and Pandas are actually installed in my system? Really appreciate your help. Thank you.

D

May 6, 2013 at 1:33 am Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  I’d recommend just installing Anaconda, it’s much simpler than doing everything one by one. See my page on installing python.
  
  May 6, 2013 at 3:00 pm Reply
frenchie says:

Hello, I am using SciTE to write my code in Python. I’m a student,so numpy and matplotlib are going to be very helpful. I have installed all the packages mentionned above. But when writting: “import numpy” a message appears in the output.

“shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Operation not permitted”

I don’t understand. Does this mean I can’t have numpy synchronised with SciTE??? In my school, we are using SciTE so I don’t want to go for another software.

May 29, 2013 at 3:02 pm Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  Did you type the “import numpy” at a Python prompt? That doesn’t look like a Python error.
  
  May 29, 2013 at 10:40 pm Reply
  1. Frenchie says:
    
    Thanks for the answer. The thing is: numpy works because in the terminal everything goes well. But on SciTe it always prints the same message. “… Operation not permitted”. Do you know what it means and how i can fix that?
    
    May 30, 2013 at 2:18 am
  2. jiffyclub says:
    
    I don’t know anything about SciTE, so I’m not sure what’s going on.
    
    May 30, 2013 at 7:44 am
banjo says:

Thank you very much. You saved me a ton!

December 15, 2013 at 2:19 am Reply
ryanhuges4500 says:

Hi, I’ve installed Numpy, Matplotlib and scipy. Every time I try importing pylab I get the following error:
Python 2.7.4 (default, Sep 26 2013, 03:20:26)
[GCC 4.7.3] on linux2
Type “help”, “copyright”, “credits” or “license” for more information.
>>> import numpy,matplotlib,scipy
>>> import pylab
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pylab.py”, line 1, in
from matplotlib.pylab import *
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/pylab.py”, line 222, in
from matplotlib import mpl # pulls in most modules
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/mpl.py”, line 2, in
from matplotlib import axis
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/axis.py”, line 13, in
import matplotlib.scale as mscale
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/scale.py”, line 7, in
from matplotlib.ticker import (NullFormatter, ScalarFormatter,
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/ticker.py”, line 126, in
import decimal
File “/usr/lib/python2.7/decimal.py”, line 3743, in
_numbers.Number.register(Decimal)
AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘Number’
>>> export PYTHONPATH=”/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages:$PYTHONPATH
File “”, line 1
export PYTHONPATH=”/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages:$PYTHONPATH
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> import pylab
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pylab.py”, line 1, in
from matplotlib.pylab import *
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/pylab.py”, line 222, in
from matplotlib import mpl # pulls in most modules
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/mpl.py”, line 2, in
from matplotlib import axis
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/axis.py”, line 13, in
import matplotlib.scale as mscale
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/scale.py”, line 7, in
from matplotlib.ticker import (NullFormatter, ScalarFormatter,
File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/ticker.py”, line 126, in
import decimal
Could you tell me how to fix this please?

File “/usr/lib/python2.7/decimal.py”, line 3743, in
_numbers.Number.register(Decimal)
AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘Number’

January 29, 2014 at 10:29 am Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  This post is extremely outdated, you should try the instructions at https://penandpants.com/install-python/.
  
  January 29, 2014 at 1:08 pm Reply
Shraddha says:

Just starting out with Python and needed all these libraries installed for a machine learning workshop. Thank you, this post really helped.
I am running os x 10.7 and had Python 2.7.1 installed. Using “pip install numpy scipy” followed by “pip install matplotlib” resulted in a dependency error (numpy installed was < 1.6, which was needed for matplotlib).

Started afresh with the above and seems to be working.

Thanks!

December 15, 2014 at 6:49 pm Reply
1. jiffyclub says:
  
  Glad it’s working! Just as a note, I generally recommend people start with the Anaconda distribution as the easiest way to get started with a scientific Python installation. See https://penandpants.com/install-python/.
  
  December 15, 2014 at 7:19 pm Reply