diff --git a/fastplotlib/VERSION b/fastplotlib/VERSION
index 6cb992894..31af98a76 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/VERSION
+++ b/fastplotlib/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.1.0.a10
\ No newline at end of file
+0.1.0.a11
diff --git a/fastplotlib/__init__.py b/fastplotlib/__init__.py
index 04886de25..7eef88276 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/__init__.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/__init__.py
@@ -1,9 +1,17 @@
-from .plot import Plot
-from .layouts import GridPlot
-from .widgets import ImageWidget
 from pathlib import Path
+
 from wgpu.gui.auto import run
 
+from .plot import Plot
+from .layouts import GridPlot
+
+try:
+    import ipywidgets
+except (ModuleNotFoundError, ImportError):
+    pass
+else:
+    from .widgets import ImageWidget
+
 
 with open(Path(__file__).parent.joinpath("VERSION"), "r") as f:
     __version__ = f.read().split("\n")[0]
diff --git a/fastplotlib/layouts/_gridplot.py b/fastplotlib/layouts/_gridplot.py
index 8cf46d33e..8f25f927b 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/layouts/_gridplot.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/layouts/_gridplot.py
@@ -8,10 +8,10 @@
 
 import pygfx
 
-from wgpu.gui.auto import WgpuCanvas
-from wgpu.gui.jupyter import JupyterWgpuCanvas
+from wgpu.gui.auto import WgpuCanvas, is_jupyter
 
-from ipywidgets import HBox, Layout, Button, ToggleButton, VBox, Dropdown
+if is_jupyter():
+    from ipywidgets import HBox, Layout, Button, ToggleButton, VBox, Dropdown
 
 from ._utils import make_canvas_and_renderer
 from ._defaults import create_controller
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ def show(
                 subplot.auto_scale(maintain_aspect=_maintain_aspect, zoom=0.95)
 
         # check if in jupyter notebook, or if toolbar is False
-        if (not isinstance(self.canvas, JupyterWgpuCanvas)) or (not toolbar):
+        if (self.canvas.__class__.__name__ != "JupyterWgpuCanvas") or (not toolbar):
             return self.canvas
 
         if self.toolbar is None:
diff --git a/fastplotlib/plot.py b/fastplotlib/plot.py
index b239c0f46..e3c358bc2 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/plot.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/plot.py
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 from typing import *
+from datetime import datetime
+import traceback
+
 import pygfx
-from wgpu.gui.auto import WgpuCanvas
+from wgpu.gui.auto import WgpuCanvas, is_jupyter
+
+if is_jupyter():
+    from ipywidgets import HBox, Layout, Button, ToggleButton, VBox
+
 from .layouts._subplot import Subplot
-from ipywidgets import HBox, Layout, Button, ToggleButton, VBox
-from wgpu.gui.jupyter import JupyterWgpuCanvas
 from .layouts._record_mixin import RecordMixin
-from datetime import datetime
-import traceback
 
 
 class Plot(Subplot, RecordMixin):
@@ -140,7 +143,7 @@ def show(
             self.auto_scale(maintain_aspect=maintain_aspect, zoom=0.95)
 
         # check if in jupyter notebook, or if toolbar is False
-        if (not isinstance(self.canvas, JupyterWgpuCanvas)) or (not toolbar):
+        if (self.canvas.__class__.__name__ != "JupyterWgpuCanvas") or (not toolbar):
             return self.canvas
 
         if self.toolbar is None:
diff --git a/fastplotlib/widgets/image.py b/fastplotlib/widgets/image.py
index 8a0c67e03..e57bae216 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/widgets/image.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/widgets/image.py
@@ -1,15 +1,12 @@
 from typing import *
 from warnings import warn
 from functools import partial
-from copy import deepcopy
-import weakref
 
 import numpy as np
-from ipywidgets.widgets import IntSlider, VBox, HBox, Layout, FloatRangeSlider, Button, BoundedIntText, Play, jslink
 
-from wgpu.gui.jupyter import JupyterWgpuCanvas
+from wgpu.gui.auto import is_jupyter
+from ipywidgets.widgets import IntSlider, VBox, HBox, Layout, FloatRangeSlider, Button, BoundedIntText, Play, jslink
 
-from ..plot import Plot
 from ..layouts import GridPlot
 from ..graphics import ImageGraphic
 from ..utils import quick_min_max, calculate_gridshape
@@ -242,6 +239,11 @@ def __init__(
         kwargs: Any
             passed to fastplotlib.graphics.Image
         """
+        if not is_jupyter():
+            raise EnvironmentError(
+                "ImageWidget is currently not supported outside of jupyter"
+            )
+
         self._names = None
         self.toolbar = None
 
@@ -913,11 +915,8 @@ def show(self, toolbar: bool = True):
             ``ipywidgets.VBox`` stacking the plotter and sliders in a vertical layout
         """
 
-        if not isinstance(self.gridplot.canvas, JupyterWgpuCanvas):
-            raise TypeError("ImageWidget is currently not supported outside of Jupyter")
-
-        # check if in jupyter notebook, or if toolbar is False
-        if (not isinstance(self.gridplot.canvas, JupyterWgpuCanvas)) or (not toolbar):
+        # don't need to check for jupyter since ImageWidget is only supported within jupyter anyways
+        if not toolbar:
             return VBox([self.gridplot.show(toolbar=False), self._vbox_sliders])
 
         if self.toolbar is None:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b7212fa23..1f4e5cb3a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@
     "docs": [
         "sphinx",
         "pydata-sphinx-theme<0.10.0",
-        "glfw"
+        "glfw",
+        "jupyter_rfb"  # required so ImageWidget docs show up
     ],
 
     "notebook":