matplotlib configuration for inline backend in jupyter notebook

Use figsize(width,height) in the top cell and it changes width of following plots

For jupyter 5.x and above with IPython kernels, you can just override particular keys and leave the rest by putting things like this, with your desired figsize in your ~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_kernel_config.py:

c = get_config()
c.InlineBackend.rc.update({"figure.figsize": (12, 10)})

Using Jupyter on windows at least, I was able to do it using something very much like venkat's answer, i.e.:

%matplotlib inline
import matplotlib
matplotlib.rcParams['figure.figsize'] = (8, 8)

I did this to square the circle, which had been rather eliptical up to that point. See, squaring the circle is not that hard. :)

The Jupyter/IPython split is confusing. Jupyter is the front end to kernels, of which IPython is the defacto Python kernel. You are trying to change something related to matplotlib and this only makes sense within the scope of the IPython kernel. Making a change to matplotlib in ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py would apply to all kernels which may not make sense (in the case of running a Ruby/R/Bash/etc. kernel which doesn't use matplotlib). Therefore, your c.InlineBackend.rc setting needs to go in the settings for the IPython kernel.

Edit the file ~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_kernel_config.py and add to the bottom: c.InlineBackend.rc = { }.

Since c.InlineBackend.rc specifies matplotlib config overrides, the blank dict tells the IPython kernel not to override any of your .matplotlibrc settings.

If the file doesn't exist, run ipython profile create to create it.