Installation and validation#

Install a platform wheel#

Requires Python 3.10+. Release 0.3.1 is published for Windows, Linux and macOS. Install from PyPI:

1python -m pip install laymesh2python -m laymesh --version

python -m pip install laymesh
python -m laymesh --version

Alternatively, follow the release procedure to build a wheel, then install that exact .whl file with python -m pip install /path/to/laymesh-<version>-<tags>.whl. Use the wheel matching your OS, architecture and Linux glibc version. Repository examples are available separately in the gallery; they are not installed by pip.

A single installation provides the CLI, native plots, Python API, Jupyter magics, NumPy/pandas data bindings and Matplotlib Figure import. NumPy, pandas, Matplotlib and IPython are default dependencies.

Install in the same Python environment used by your Notebook kernel. In a Notebook, %pip install laymesh selects the active kernel's environment. A Notebook application such as JupyterLab is installed separately.

Platforms and fonts#

Build target	Requirement
Windows x64	64-bit Windows, x64 Python
macOS Intel / Apple Silicon	macOS 14+, matching Python architecture
Linux x64 / arm64	glibc at least as new as the wheel's `manylinux_2_XX` tag

This release includes wheels for all five platforms, each verified on Python 3.10, 3.13 and 3.14. The Linux wheels are manylinux_2_35_x86_64 / manylinux_2_35_aarch64 and require glibc 2.35+. See the release workflow for validation. Alpine/musl, 32-bit systems and Windows ARM64 have no wheels.

Wheels contain one Rust native executable, formula fonts and dependency licenses. Rendering downloads no engine or fonts and requires no Rust, Node.js or TeX installation. Body fonts come from the system or user files; missing glyphs warn and display vector boxes. Supply explicit font files when sharing reproducible figures. Documentation browser previews provide their own fonts separately.

First run#

Save the following as figure.lay:

1page = canvas(size=(120 mm, 90 mm), background="#ffffff")2p = plot(size=(110 mm, 80 mm),3         x=axis(label="Time (s)"), y=axis(label="Signal"))4p.line(x=[0, 1, 2, 3], y=[1, 3, 2, 4], label="Experiment")5p.legend(position="top_left")6page.add(p, offset=(5 mm, 5 mm))

page = canvas(size=(120 mm, 90 mm), background="#ffffff")
p = plot(size=(110 mm, 80 mm),
         x=axis(label="Time (s)"), y=axis(label="Signal"))
p.line(x=[0, 1, 2, 3], y=[1, 3, 2, 4], label="Experiment")
p.legend(position="top_left")
page.add(p, offset=(5 mm, 5 mm))

1python -m laymesh validate figure.lay2python -m laymesh inspect figure.lay --json3python -m laymesh render figure.lay -o figure.pdf4python -m laymesh render figure.lay -o figure.png --dpi 300

python -m laymesh validate figure.lay
python -m laymesh inspect figure.lay --json
python -m laymesh render figure.lay -o figure.pdf
python -m laymesh render figure.lay -o figure.png --dpi 300

laymesh and python -m laymesh invoke the same engine. validate checks source and assets; render checks them and writes an export. Errors return a nonzero status with file, line, column and reason. inspect --json reports dimensions, mappings, transforms and diagnostics. Use --warnings show|hide or LAYMESH_WARNINGS; hiding warnings preserves errors and inspection diagnostics.

Source development#

Requires Rust 1.93.1 and Python 3.11+ for build scripts. From the repository root:

1cargo build --release --locked -p laymesh-cli2python -m pip install -e './python'3python -m laymesh render examples/basic.lay -o basic.pdf

cargo build --release --locked -p laymesh-cli
python -m pip install -e './python'
python -m laymesh render examples/basic.lay -o basic.pdf

For direct native execution use target/release/laymesh (target/release/laymesh.exe on Windows), or cargo run --release --locked -p laymesh-cli --. Editable installs use the repository engine; they do not bundle it. LAYMESH_CLI can select an explicit native executable for development.

Basic concepts · First layout · Python API · Notebook