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Instruction of solving the problem of label display of Chinese characters in Mac OS

Original Source: MacOS系统下matplotlib中SimHei中文字体缺失报错的解决办法. However, in this article is in Chinese. Therefore, I will translate it into English and add some of my own experience.

Problem Description

When we use matplotlib to display Chinese characters in Mac OS, you may encounter the following error due to the lack of Chinese fonts:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif'] = ['SimHei'] 
plt.rcParams['axes.unicode_minus'] = False

Step 1: find the path of the font file

First, we need to enter the Python3 environment in the terminal, and then import the matplotlib library. Then we can use the following command to find the path of the font file:

import matplotlib    
print(matplotlib.matplotlib_fname())

For example, my path is /Users/yubocai/anaconda3/envs/mlp/lib/python3.9/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc.

Step 2: Download Simhei font

Here you can find the link of Simhei font: Simhei. After downloading, you can find the SimHei.ttf file in the Simhei folder.

Step 3: Copy the font file to the path found in Step 1

Copy the SimHei.ttf file to the path found in Step 1. For example, my path is /Users/yubocai/anaconda3/envs/mlp/lib/python3.9/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf. Note that this time is in his ttf folder.

Step 4: Clean the cache of matplotlib

import matplotlib
print(matplotlib.get_cachedir())

Then you can get /Users/your_compute_name/.matplotlib. Then exist python environment and delete the file with

rm -rf /Users/your_compute_name/.matplotlib

Step 5: adjust the orginal file of matplotlib

Open the file matplotlibrc in the path found in Step 1, and find the following code:

# remove the #
font.family:  sans-serif

# remove the #，and add SimHei

font.sans-serif: SimHei, DejaVu Sans, Bitstream Vera Sans, Computer Modern Sans Serif, Lucida Grande, Verdana, Geneva, Lucid, Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde, sans-serif

# remove the #，Change True to False
axes.unicode_minus: False  # use Unicode for the minus symbol rather than hyphen.  See
                           # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus_and_minus_signs#Character_codes

Step 6: Clean the cache of your Jupyter Notebook and Restart the Kernel

Then every thing should be fine. You don't even need the code plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif'] = ['SimHei'] to display Chinese characters.