This section reviews the functions that are available for formatting and plotting matrices.

Matrices can be formatted with the function MatrixForm.

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MatrixForm also works for vectors and higher rank tensors; the braces can help to understand the grouping.

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A convenient way to plot matrices is with the function MatrixPlot. It is defined in the package LinearAlgebra`MatrixManipulation`. First, the package must be loaded.

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MatrixPlot has a number of graphics options for controlling the appearance of the plot. Many of these are the typical options of Mathematica DensityGraphics objects. It also has a special option, MaxMatrixSize, that controls the maximum size for the display of a matrix. Above this size the matrix is downsampled. Some of the important options are summarized in the following.

By default, no mesh is drawn around the elements; this can be enabled with the Mesh option. Typically you would not want to draw the mesh if the matrix is very large. When the mesh is drawn, it has a default style that uses white lines in order to reduce interference with the picture. The style of the mesh can be altered with the MeshStyle option.

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Color can be given to the picture with the ColorFunction option.

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