IPython notebook was developed by Fernando Perez as a web based front end to IPython kernel. As an effort to make an integrated interactive computing environment for multiple language, Notebook project was shifted under Project Jupyter providing front end for programming environments Juila and R in addition to Python.

A notebook document consists of rich text elements with HTML formatted text, figures, mathematical equations etc. The notebook is also an executable document consisting of code blocks in Python or other supporting languages.

Jupyter notebook is a client-server application. The application starts the server on local machine and opens the notebook interface in web browser where it can be edited and run from. The notebook is saved as ipynb file and can be exported as html, pdf and LaTex files.