Installation

Depending on your use case, different installation options are recommended: if you just want to play around with Manim for a bit, interactive in-browser notebooks are a really simple way of exploring the library as they require no local installation. Head over to https://try.manim.community to give our interactive tutorial a try.

Otherwise, if you intend to use Manim to work on an animation project, we recommend installing the library locally (preferably to some isolated virtual Python environment, or a conda-like environment, or via Docker).

Warning

Note that there are several different versions of Manim. The instructions on this website are only for the community edition. Find out more about the differences between Manim versions if you are unsure which version you should install.

1. (Recommended) Installing Manim via Python’s package manager pip

2. Installing Manim to a conda environment

3. Using Manim via Docker

4. Interactive Jupyter notebooks via Binder / Google Colab

Installing Manim locally via pip

The recommended way of installing Manim is by using Python’s package manager pip. If you already have a Python environment set up, you can simply run pip install manim to install the library.

Our local installation guide provides more detailed instructions, including best practices for setting up a suitable local environment.

Installing Manim via Conda and related environment managers

Conda is a package manager for Python that allows creating environments where all your dependencies are stored. Like this, you don’t clutter up your PC with unwanted libraries and you can just delete the environment when you don’t need it anymore. It is a good way to install manim since all dependencies like pycairo, etc. come with it. Also, the installation steps are the same, no matter if you are on Windows, Linux, Intel Macs or on Apple Silicon.

Note

There are various popular alternatives to Conda like mamba / micromamba, or pixi. They all can be used to setup a suitable, isolated environment for your Manim projects.

The following pages show how to install Manim in a conda environment:

• Conda
  • Required Dependencies
  • Optional Dependencies
  • Working with Manim

Using Manim via Docker

Docker is a virtualization tool that allows the distribution of encapsulated software environments (containers).

The following pages contain more information about the docker image maintained by the community, manimcommunity/manim:

• Docker
  • Basic usage of the Docker container
  • Running JupyterLab via Docker

Interactive Jupyter notebooks for your browser

Manim ships with a built-in %%manim IPython magic command designed for the use within Jupyter notebooks. Our interactive tutorial over at https://try.manim.community illustrates how Manim can be used from within a Jupyter notebook.

The following pages explain how you can setup interactive environments like that yourself:

• Jupyter Notebooks
  • Binder
  • Google Colaboratory

Editors

If you’re using Visual Studio Code you can install an extension called Manim Sideview which provides automated rendering and an integrated preview of the animation inside the editor. The extension can be installed through the marketplace of VS Code.

Caution

This extension is not officially maintained by the Manim Community. If you run into issues, please report them to the extension’s author.

Installation for developers

In order to change code in the library, it is recommended to install Manim in a different way. Please follow the instructions in our contribution guide if you are interested in that.