diff --git a/.appveyor.yml b/.appveyor.yml
index 981b6ed2c866..b6d1dea4fe45 100644
--- a/.appveyor.yml
+++ b/.appveyor.yml
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ install:
   - del %LIBRARY_LIB%\z.lib
   - set MPLBASEDIRLIST=%CONDA_PREFIX%\Library\;.
   # enables the local freetype build
-  - copy ci\travis\setup.cfg .
+  - set MPLLOCALFREETYPE=1
   # Show the installed packages + versions
   - conda list
 
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 0be20c9132d7..d3e226261358 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -59,14 +59,18 @@ env:
     - PYTEST_COV=pytest-cov
     - PYTEST_PEP8=
     - SPHINX=sphinx
+    # Variables controlling the build.
+    - MPLLOCALFREETYPE=1
     # Variables controlling the test run.
     - DELETE_FONT_CACHE=
     - NO_AT_BRIDGE=1  # Necessary for GTK3 interactive test.
+    # The number of processes is hardcoded, because using too many causes the
+    # Travis VM to run out of memory (since so many copies of inkscape and
+    # ghostscript are running at the same time).
     - NPROC=2
     - OPENBLAS_NUM_THREADS=1
     - PYTHONFAULTHANDLER=1
-    - PYTEST_ARGS="-rawR --maxfail=50 --timeout=300 --durations=25 --cov-report= --cov=lib -n $NPROC"
-    - PYTHON_ARGS=
+    - PYTEST_ADDOPTS="-rawR --maxfail=50 --timeout=300 --durations=25 --cov-report= --cov=lib -n $NPROC"
     - RUN_PEP8=
 
 matrix:
@@ -84,9 +88,14 @@ matrix:
         - PYTEST_COV=pytest-cov==2.3.1
         - SPHINX=sphinx==1.3
     - python: 3.5
-      env: PYTHON_ARGS=-OO
+      env:
+        # - PYTHONOPTIMIZE=2  # This currently doesn't work.
     - python: 3.6
-      env: DELETE_FONT_CACHE=1 PANDAS='pandas<0.21.0' PYTEST_PEP8=pytest-pep8 RUN_PEP8=--pep8
+      env:
+        - DELETE_FONT_CACHE=1
+        - PANDAS='pandas<0.21.0'
+        - PYTEST_PEP8=pytest-pep8
+        - PYTEST_ADDOPTS="$PYTEST_ADDOPTS --pep8"
     - python: "nightly"
       env: PRE=--pre
     - os: osx
@@ -104,25 +113,22 @@ matrix:
   allow_failures:
     - python: "nightly"
 
-before_install:
-  - |
-    if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME != 'osx' ]]; then
-      # test with non-ascii in path
-      mkdir /tmp/λ
-      export PATH=$PATH:/tmp/λ
-      export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH
-    else
-      ci/travis/silence brew update
-      brew upgrade python
-      brew install ffmpeg imagemagick mplayer ccache
-      hash -r
-      which python
-      python --version
-      # We could install ghostscript and inkscape here to test svg and pdf
-      # but this makes the test time really long.
-      # brew install ghostscript inkscape
-      export PATH=/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:/usr/local/opt/ccache/libexec:$PATH
-    fi
+before_install: |
+  # test with non-ascii in path
+  if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME != 'osx' ]]; then
+    export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH
+  else
+    ci/silence brew update
+    brew upgrade python
+    brew install ffmpeg imagemagick mplayer ccache
+    hash -r
+    which python
+    python --version
+    # We could install ghostscript and inkscape here to test svg and pdf
+    # but this makes the test time really long.
+    # brew install ghostscript inkscape
+    export PATH=/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:/usr/local/opt/ccache/libexec:$PATH
+  fi
 
 install:
   - |
@@ -141,8 +147,6 @@ install:
         $NOSE \
         $NUMPY \
         $PANDAS \
-        codecov \
-        coverage \
         pillow \
         $PYPARSING \
         $SPHINX \
@@ -175,34 +179,34 @@ install:
         pytest-rerunfailures \
         pytest-timeout \
         pytest-xdist
-
-    # Use the special local version of freetype for testing
-    cp ci/travis/setup.cfg .
   - |
     # Install matplotlib
     python -mpip install -ve .
 
-before_script:
-  - |
-    if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME != 'osx' ]]; then
-      export DISPLAY=:99.0
-      sh -e /etc/init.d/xvfb start
-    fi
+before_script: |
+  if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME != 'osx' ]]; then
+    export DISPLAY=:99.0
+    sh -e /etc/init.d/xvfb start
+  fi
+  if [[ $DELETE_FONT_CACHE == 1 ]]; then
+    rm -rf ~/.cache/matplotlib
+  fi
 
-script: ci/travis/test_script.sh
+script: |
+  echo "Calling pytest with the following arguments: $PYTEST_ADDOPTS"
+  python -mpytest
 
-before_cache:
-  - rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/tex.cache
-  - rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/test_cache
+before_cache: |
+  rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/tex.cache
+  rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/test_cache
 
-after_failure:
-  - |
-    if [[ $TRAVIS_PULL_REQUEST == false && $TRAVIS_REPO_SLUG == 'matplotlib/matplotlib' ]]; then
-      tar cjf result_images.tar.bz2 result_images
-      echo 'See "Uploading Artifacts" near the end of the log for the download URL'
-    else
-      echo "The result images will only be uploaded if they are on the matplotlib/matplotlib repo - this is for security reasons to prevent arbitrary PRs echoing security details."
-    fi
+after_failure: |
+  if [[ $TRAVIS_PULL_REQUEST == false && $TRAVIS_REPO_SLUG == 'matplotlib/matplotlib' ]]; then
+    tar cjf result_images.tar.bz2 result_images
+    echo 'See "Uploading Artifacts" near the end of the log for the download URL'
+  else
+    echo "The result images will only be uploaded if they are on the matplotlib/matplotlib repo - this is for security reasons to prevent arbitrary PRs echoing security details."
+  fi
 
-after_success:
-  - codecov -e TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION
+after_success: |
+  codecov -e TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION
diff --git a/ci/travis/silence b/ci/silence
similarity index 100%
rename from ci/travis/silence
rename to ci/silence
diff --git a/ci/travis/matplotlibDeployKey.enc b/ci/travis/matplotlibDeployKey.enc
deleted file mode 100644
index f73fb807cdf5..000000000000
Binary files a/ci/travis/matplotlibDeployKey.enc and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/ci/travis/setup.cfg b/ci/travis/setup.cfg
deleted file mode 100644
index 61cdc102a0f8..000000000000
--- a/ci/travis/setup.cfg
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-[test]
-local_freetype=True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ci/travis/test_script.sh b/ci/travis/test_script.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index f6446d21f16d..000000000000
--- a/ci/travis/test_script.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-#! /bin/bash
-
-set -ex
-
-# This script is meant to be called by the "script" step defined in
-# .travis.yml. See http://docs.travis-ci.com/ for more details.
-# The behavior of the script is controlled by environment variabled defined
-# in the .travis.yml in the top level folder of the project.
-
-# The number of processes is hardcoded, because using too many causes the
-# Travis VM to run out of memory (since so many copies of inkscape and
-# ghostscript are running at the same time).
-
-if [[ $DELETE_FONT_CACHE == 1 ]]; then
-  rm -rf ~/.cache/matplotlib
-fi
-
-echo The following args are passed to pytest $PYTEST_ARGS $RUN_PEP8
-
-python -mpytest $PYTEST_ARGS $RUN_PEP8