Histograms are frequently used to visualize the distribution of a data set or to compare between multiple distributions. Python, via matplotlib.pyplot, contains convenient functions for plotting histograms; the default plots it generates, however, leave much to be desired in terms of visual appeal and clarity.

The two code blocks below generate histograms of two normally distributed sets using default matplotlib.pyplot.hist settings and then, in the second block, I add some lines to improve the data presentation. See the comments to determine what each individual line is doing.