# Plots Pane

View, explore, and manage plots from your Python or R session. Navigate plot history, zoom, copy, and save visualizations in multiple formats.

The **Plots** pane displays visualizations generated from your Python or R session and by default, is located in the Secondary Side Bar.

## Opening the Plots pane

If the **Plots** pane is not already displayed, you can access it via:

- Selecting **View** \> **Plots** from the menu bar
- Running *Session: Focus on Plots View* from the [Command Palette](command-palette.llms.md)

## Viewing plots

When you create a plot in Python or R, it automatically appears in the **Plots** pane. The pane maintains a history of all plots generated during your session, allowing you to navigate back and forth between them. Each plot displays which session (Python or R) created it.

### Plot history navigation

Use the navigation arrows in the **Plots** pane toolbar to browse through your plot history:

-  Show previous plot
-  Show next plot

### Zooming

You can zoom in on plots to examine details more closely. Use the zoom controls in the toolbar or open your plot in an editor tab or a new window.

### Navigating to plot source code

The **Plots** pane can navigate to, copy, or rerun the code that created a plot. Select the icon in the toolbar to access these actions.

### Saving and exporting plots

The **Plots** pane provides several options for saving and sharing your visualizations.

- **Copy plot to clipboard:** Copy the current plot to your clipboard for pasting into other applications
- **Save plot:** Export the plot to a file in various formats (PNG, SVG, PDF, etc.)

## Plots gallery

To pop the whole **Plots** pane UI to a separate auxiliary window, either run the command *Plots: Open Plots Gallery in New Window* or select from the **Plots** pane action bar.

## Plots settings

Key settings control how you interact with your data visualizations.

- [`plots.defaultSizingPolicy`](positron://settings/plots.defaultSizingPolicy): The default sizing policy to use for newly created plots
- [`plots.darkFilter`](positron://settings/plots.darkFilter): Use a color filter to make light plots appear dark
- [`plots.freezeSlowPlots`](positron://settings/plots.freezeSlowPlots): Freeze slow-to-generate plots at a fixed size to avoid rendering repeatedly on viewport changes
- [`plots.historyPolicy`](positron://settings/plots.historyPolicy): When the plot history filmstrip is visible