And yet more strangeness...the superpack matplotlib breaks the ability to use pylab: running ipython -pylab produces: <snip> File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ python2.4/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/tkagg.py", line 1, in ? import _tkagg ImportError: Failure linking new module: /Library/Frameworks/ Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4/site-packages/matplotlib/ backends/_tkagg.so: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libfreetype. 6.dylib Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/ lib/python2.4/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/_tkagg.so Reason: image not found Reverting back to the matplotlib at http://www.macpython.org/packages/ py24-fat/index.html allows ipython -pylab to work. I have no idea if mixing and matching parts of superpak with other packages will cause me later problems. I'm curious, Vincent, do you run matplotlib interactively with ipython? Does that piece installed from the superpack work for you? Thanks again, --b