--- a
+++ b/ants/plotting/plot_hist.py
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+"""
+Functions for plotting ants images
+"""
+
+
+__all__ = [
+    "plot_hist"
+]
+
+import fnmatch
+import math
+import os
+import warnings
+
+from matplotlib import gridspec
+import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+import matplotlib.patheffects as path_effects
+import matplotlib.lines as mlines
+import matplotlib.patches as patches
+import matplotlib.mlab as mlab
+import matplotlib.animation as animation
+from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator import inset_axes
+
+
+import numpy as np
+from ants.decorators import image_method
+
+@image_method
+def plot_hist(
+    image,
+    threshold=0.0,
+    fit_line=False,
+    normfreq=True,
+    ## plot label arguments
+    title=None,
+    grid=True,
+    xlabel=None,
+    ylabel=None,
+    ## other plot arguments
+    facecolor="green",
+    alpha=0.75,
+):
+    """
+    Plot a histogram from an ANTsImage
+
+    Arguments
+    ---------
+    image : ANTsImage
+        image from which histogram will be created
+    """
+    img_arr = image.numpy().flatten()
+    img_arr = img_arr[np.abs(img_arr) > threshold]
+
+    if normfreq != False:
+        normfreq = 1.0 if normfreq == True else normfreq
+    n, bins, patches = plt.hist(
+        img_arr, 50, facecolor=facecolor, alpha=alpha
+    )
+
+    if fit_line:
+        # add a 'best fit' line
+        y = mlab.normpdf(bins, img_arr.mean(), img_arr.std())
+        l = plt.plot(bins, y, "r--", linewidth=1)
+
+    if xlabel is not None:
+        plt.xlabel(xlabel)
+    if ylabel is not None:
+        plt.ylabel(ylabel)
+    if title is not None:
+        plt.title(title)
+
+    plt.grid(grid)
+    plt.show()