diff --git a/doc/_static/mpl.css b/doc/_static/mpl.css
index 7aa01b731654..c6b8b5327e60 100644
--- a/doc/_static/mpl.css
+++ b/doc/_static/mpl.css
@@ -505,3 +505,33 @@ ul.search li div.context {
 ul.keywordmatches li.goodmatch a {
     font-weight: bold;
 }
+
+table.docutils {
+    border-spacing: 2px;
+    border: collapse;
+    border-top-width: 1px;
+    border-right-width: 0px;
+    border-bottom-width: 1px;
+    border-left-width: 0px;
+}
+
+table.docutils tr:nth-child(even) {
+    background-color: #F3F3FF;
+}
+table.docutils tr:nth-child(odd) {
+    background-color: #FFFFEE;
+}
+
+table.docutils tr {
+    border-style: solid none solid none;
+    border-width: 1px 0 1px 0;
+    border-color: #AAAAAA;
+}
+
+table.docutils th {
+    padding: 1px 8px 1px 5px;
+}
+
+table.docutils td {
+    border-width: 1px 0 1px 0;
+}
diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index 445ced4c048b..a89820efb252 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -11,12 +11,14 @@
 # All configuration values have a default value; values that are commented out
 # serve to show the default value.
 
-import sys, os
+import os
+import sys
+import sphinx
 
 # If your extensions are in another directory, add it here. If the directory
 # is relative to the documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it
 # absolute, like shown here.
-sys.path.append(os.path.abspath('sphinxext'))
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('sphinxext'))
 
 # General configuration
 # ---------------------
@@ -25,10 +27,24 @@
 # coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom ones.
 extensions = ['matplotlib.sphinxext.mathmpl', 'math_symbol_table',
               'sphinx.ext.autodoc', 'matplotlib.sphinxext.only_directives',
-              'sphinx.ext.doctest',
+              'sphinx.ext.doctest', 'sphinx.ext.autosummary',
               'matplotlib.sphinxext.plot_directive', 'sphinx.ext.inheritance_diagram',
               'gen_gallery', 'gen_rst',
-              'matplotlib.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting', 'github']
+              'matplotlib.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting', 'github',
+              'numpy_ext.numpydoc']
+
+
+try:
+    import numpydoc
+except ImportError:
+    raise ImportError("No modyle named numpydoc - you need to install "
+                      "numpydoc to build the documentation.")
+
+
+autosummary_generate = True
+
+if sphinx.__version__ >= 1.1:
+    autodoc_docstring_signature = True
 
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
 templates_path = ['_templates']
@@ -133,7 +149,9 @@
 
 # Additional templates that should be rendered to pages, maps page names to
 # template names.
-html_additional_pages = {'index': 'index.html', 'gallery':'gallery.html', 'citing':'citing.html'}
+html_additional_pages = {'index': 'index.html',
+                         'gallery':'gallery.html',
+                         'citing': 'citing.html'}
 
 # If false, no module index is generated.
 #html_use_modindex = True
diff --git a/doc/devel/documenting_mpl.rst b/doc/devel/documenting_mpl.rst
index f93fed655ab5..a1e1eb107e9c 100644
--- a/doc/devel/documenting_mpl.rst
+++ b/doc/devel/documenting_mpl.rst
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ Documenting matplotlib
 Getting started
 ===============
 
-The documentation for matplotlib is generated from ReStructured Text
-using the Sphinx_ documentation generation tool. Sphinx-1.0 or later
-is required.
+The documentation for matplotlib is generated from ReStructured Text using the
+Sphinx_ documentation generation tool. Sphinx-1.0 or later and numpydoc 0.4 or
+later is required.
 
 The documentation sources are found in the :file:`doc/` directory in
 the trunk.  To build the users guide in html format, cd into