1.2. Prerequisites

This section enlists prerequisites required by the napari plugins.

1.2.1. Python

All napari plugins are written in Python which requires a Python interpreter for execution. We recommend to install Python from one of the following sources…

Provider	URL	Description
Python Software Foundation	https://www.python.org/downloads/	Python interpreter (no additional packages)
Anaconda Inc.	https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html	Python interpreter + conda package manager (no additional packages)
Anaconda Inc.	https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/install/	Python interpreter + conda package manager + 100+ packages

While the Python Software Foundation provides a lightweight installer without any packages Anaconda Inc. provides a distribution with over 100 packages which, in return, needs more than 3Gb of disk space.

Note: To avoid conflicts between napari plugins and other Python packages, it is recommended to create/use a new virtual environment. Please refer to “The Python Tutorial” for further information.

1.2.2. Git

By now, all napari plugins are available via private GitHub repositories. Hence, a git client is required for authentication and downloading/installing Python packages. The git command line interface (CLI) client can be downloaded from https://git-scm.com/download/. However, if you prefer a graphical user interface (GUI) you can find a full list of available GUI clients here.

If you are new to git please refer to the official documentation and the introduction videos.

Note: The documentation assumes as you installed the CLI client and as you use a terminal to execute the git commands. This way, we can keep the documentation tidy as each GUI client is different in its behaviour and has a different feature set. Please refer to your GUI client’s docunmentation on how to perform individual git commands via the graphical user interface.

1.2.3. Napari

Napari is a fast, interactive, multi-dimensional image viewer for Python.

Minimal requirements

Operating System	Python
Windows, Linux, MacOS	v3.7 and later

Napari can be installed via pip:

pip install napari[all]

Note: napari[all] includes the PyQt5 GUI backend which is required for the graphical user interface.

A full installation instruction is available via https://napari.org/.