If you've read the preface, then you know who this book is for—developers with intermediate or advanced knowledge of matplotlib as well as the motivated beginners. But who are they exactly? What do such users know?
Answers to such questions are fairly open-ended. We have the following guidelines. The intermediate matplotlib user should have some limited knowledge to passing experience with the following:
Installation of matplotlib in multiple environments
Creation of basic to moderately complicated matplotlib plots
Basic matplotlib APIs, styling, backends, and customizations
Using matplotlib objects, subplots, and overlays
Advanced third-party tools such as Seaborn, Pandas, ggplot, distributed IPython, and StarCluster
Completed reading most or all of the following books, Matplotlib for Python Developers, Sandro Tosi, Packt Publishing, and matplotlib Plotting Cookbook, Alexandre Devert, Packt Publishing