diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py b/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
index 423319df6d43..68f9e10b4c27 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
                         unicode_literals)
 
 import six
-from six.moves import xrange, zip
+from six.moves import zip
 from itertools import repeat
 import collections
 import datetime
@@ -900,7 +900,7 @@ def get_split_ind(seq, N):
 
     s_len = 0
     # todo: use Alex's xrange pattern from the cbook for efficiency
-    for (word, ind) in zip(seq, xrange(len(seq))):
+    for (word, ind) in zip(seq, range(len(seq))):
         s_len += len(word) + 1  # +1 to account for the len(' ')
         if s_len >= N:
             return ind
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py b/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
index 89e46b04fdd7..b7f36409d516 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
@@ -134,9 +134,8 @@
                         unicode_literals)
 
 import six
-from six.moves import xrange
 
-import sys, os, shutil, io, re, textwrap
+import sys, os, shutil, io, re, textwrap, itertools
 from os.path import relpath
 import traceback
 import warnings
@@ -597,7 +596,7 @@ def render_figures(code, code_path, output_dir, output_base, context,
     all_exists = True
     for i, code_piece in enumerate(code_pieces):
         images = []
-        for j in xrange(1000):
+        for j in itertools.count(0):
             if len(code_pieces) > 1:
                 img = ImageFile('%s_%02d_%02d' % (output_base, i, j), output_dir)
             else: