diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
index 44ab9b8701f8..da79a558d075 100644
--- a/.flake8
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ per-file-ignores =
     examples/lines_bars_and_markers/joinstyle.py: E402
     examples/lines_bars_and_markers/scatter_piecharts.py: E402
     examples/lines_bars_and_markers/span_regions.py: E402
-    examples/misc/agg_oo_sgskip.py: E402
+    examples/misc/agg_buffer.py: E402
     examples/misc/anchored_artists.py: E501
     examples/misc/contour_manual.py: E501
     examples/misc/font_indexing.py: E501
@@ -263,6 +263,7 @@ per-file-ignores =
     examples/text_labels_and_annotations/tex_demo.py: E402
     examples/text_labels_and_annotations/watermark_text.py: E402
     examples/ticks_and_spines/auto_ticks.py: E501
+    examples/user_interfaces/canvasagg.py: E402
     examples/user_interfaces/embedding_in_gtk3_panzoom_sgskip.py: E402
     examples/user_interfaces/embedding_in_gtk3_sgskip.py: E402
     examples/user_interfaces/embedding_in_qt_sgskip.py: E402
diff --git a/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst b/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
index 12633e8b2d91..dd48905e27f8 100644
--- a/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
+++ b/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
@@ -662,7 +662,7 @@ For more on configuring your backend, see
 
 Alternatively, you can avoid pylab/pyplot altogether, which will give
 you a little more control, by calling the API directly as shown in
-:doc:`/gallery/misc/agg_oo_sgskip`.
+:doc:`/gallery/user_interfaces/canvasagg`.
 
 You can either generate hardcopy on the filesystem by calling savefig::
 
diff --git a/examples/misc/agg_buffer.py b/examples/misc/agg_buffer.py
index aa76efe291dc..096c7e856115 100644
--- a/examples/misc/agg_buffer.py
+++ b/examples/misc/agg_buffer.py
@@ -9,14 +9,8 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 
-import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg
-
-
-try:
-    from PIL import Image
-except ImportError:
-    raise SystemExit("Pillow must be installed to run this example")
+import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
 plt.plot([1, 2, 3])
 
@@ -24,19 +18,14 @@
 
 agg = canvas.switch_backends(FigureCanvasAgg)
 agg.draw()
-s = agg.tostring_rgb()
-
-# get the width and the height to resize the matrix
-l, b, w, h = agg.figure.bbox.bounds
-w, h = int(w), int(h)
+s, (width, height) = agg.print_to_buffer()
 
-X = np.fromstring(s, np.uint8).reshape((h, w, 3))
+# Convert to a NumPy array.
+X = np.fromstring(s, np.uint8).reshape((height, width, 4))
 
-try:
-    im = Image.fromstring("RGB", (w, h), s)
-except Exception:
-    im = Image.frombytes("RGB", (w, h), s)
+# Pass off to PIL.
+from PIL import Image
+im = Image.frombytes("RGBA", (width, height), s)
 
-# Uncomment this line to display the image using ImageMagick's
-# `display` tool.
+# Uncomment this line to display the image using ImageMagick's `display` tool.
 # im.show()
diff --git a/examples/misc/agg_oo_sgskip.py b/examples/misc/agg_oo_sgskip.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 9f51c22815d5..000000000000
--- a/examples/misc/agg_oo_sgskip.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-"""
-=============================
-The object-oriented interface
-=============================
-
-A pure object-oriented example using the agg backend. Notice that there is no
-``pyplot`` used here.
-"""
-
-from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg as FigureCanvas
-from matplotlib.figure import Figure
-
-fig = Figure()
-# A canvas must be manually attached to the figure (pyplot would automatically
-# do it).  This is done by instantiating the canvas with the figure as
-# argument.
-FigureCanvas(fig)
-ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
-ax.plot([1, 2, 3])
-ax.set_title('hi mom')
-ax.grid(True)
-ax.set_xlabel('time')
-ax.set_ylabel('volts')
-fig.savefig('test')
-
-#############################################################################
-#
-# ------------
-#
-# References
-# """"""""""
-#
-# The use of the following functions, methods, classes and modules is shown
-# in this example:
-
-import matplotlib
-matplotlib.backends.backend_agg.FigureCanvasAgg
-matplotlib.figure.Figure
-matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot
-matplotlib.figure.Figure.savefig
-matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot
-matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title
-matplotlib.axes.Axes.grid
-matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel
-matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel
diff --git a/examples/misc/webapp_demo_sgskip.py b/examples/misc/webapp_demo_sgskip.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 8a67dfb2af93..000000000000
--- a/examples/misc/webapp_demo_sgskip.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
-"""
-===========
-Webapp Demo
-===========
-
-This example shows how to use the agg backend directly to create
-images, which may be of use to web application developers who want
-full control over their code without using the pyplot interface to
-manage figures, figure closing etc.
-
-.. note::
-
-    It is not necessary to avoid using the pyplot interface in order to
-    create figures without a graphical front-end - simply setting
-    the backend to "Agg" would be sufficient.
-
-It is also worth noting that, because matplotlib can save figures to file-like
-object, matplotlib can also be used inside a cgi-script *without* needing to
-write a figure to disk.
-
-"""
-
-from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg
-from matplotlib.figure import Figure
-import numpy as np
-
-# Fixing random state for reproducibility
-np.random.seed(19680801)
-
-
-def make_fig():
-    """
-    Make a figure and save it to "webagg.png".
-
-    """
-    fig = Figure()
-    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
-
-    ax.plot([1, 2, 3], 'ro--', markersize=12, markerfacecolor='g')
-
-    # make a translucent scatter collection
-    x = np.random.rand(100)
-    y = np.random.rand(100)
-    area = np.pi * (10 * np.random.rand(100)) ** 2  # 0 to 10 point radii
-    c = ax.scatter(x, y, area)
-    c.set_alpha(0.5)
-
-    # add some text decoration
-    ax.set_title('My first image')
-    ax.set_ylabel('Some numbers')
-    ax.set_xticks((.2, .4, .6, .8))
-    labels = ax.set_xticklabels(('Bill', 'Fred', 'Ted', 'Ed'))
-
-    # To set object properties, you can either iterate over the
-    # objects manually, or define you own set command, as in setapi
-    # above.
-    for label in labels:
-        label.set_rotation(45)
-        label.set_fontsize(12)
-
-    FigureCanvasAgg(fig).print_png('webapp.png', dpi=150)
-
-
-make_fig()
diff --git a/examples/user_interfaces/canvasagg.py b/examples/user_interfaces/canvasagg.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..81999d4856c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/user_interfaces/canvasagg.py
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+"""
+==============
+CanvasAgg demo
+==============
+
+This example shows how to use the agg backend directly to create images, which
+may be of use to web application developers who want full control over their
+code without using the pyplot interface to manage figures, figure closing etc.
+
+.. note::
+
+    It is not necessary to avoid using the pyplot interface in order to
+    create figures without a graphical front-end - simply setting
+    the backend to "Agg" would be sufficient.
+
+In this example, we show how to save the contents of the agg canvas to a file,
+and how to extract them to a string, which can in turn be passed off to PIL or
+put in a numpy array.  The latter functionality allows e.g. to use Matplotlib
+inside a cgi-script *without* needing to write a figure to disk.
+"""
+
+from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg
+from matplotlib.figure import Figure
+import numpy as np
+
+fig = Figure(figsize=(5, 4), dpi=100)
+# A canvas must be manually attached to the figure (pyplot would automatically
+# do it).  This is done by instantiating the canvas with the figure as
+# argument.
+canvas = FigureCanvasAgg(fig)
+
+# Do some plotting.
+ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
+ax.plot([1, 2, 3])
+
+# Option 1: Save the figure to a file; can also be a file-like object (BytesIO,
+# etc.).
+fig.savefig("test.png")
+
+# Option 2: Save the figure to a string.
+canvas.draw()
+s, (width, height) = canvas.print_to_buffer()
+
+# Option 2a: Convert to a NumPy array.
+X = np.fromstring(s, np.uint8).reshape((height, width, 4))
+
+# Option 2b: Pass off to PIL.
+from PIL import Image
+im = Image.frombytes("RGBA", (width, height), s)
+
+# Uncomment this line to display the image using ImageMagick's `display` tool.
+# im.show()
+
+#############################################################################
+#
+# ------------
+#
+# References
+# """"""""""
+#
+# The use of the following functions, methods, classes and modules is shown
+# in this example:
+
+import matplotlib
+matplotlib.backends.backend_agg.FigureCanvasAgg
+matplotlib.figure.Figure
+matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot
+matplotlib.figure.Figure.savefig
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot
diff --git a/examples/user_interfaces/histogram_demo_canvasagg_sgskip.py b/examples/user_interfaces/histogram_demo_canvasagg_sgskip.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 1757a1245b5f..000000000000
--- a/examples/user_interfaces/histogram_demo_canvasagg_sgskip.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-"""
-========================
-Histogram Demo CanvasAgg
-========================
-
-This is an example that shows you how to work directly with the agg
-figure canvas to create a figure using the pythonic API.
-
-In this example, the contents of the agg canvas are extracted to a
-string, which can in turn be passed off to PIL or put in a numeric
-array
-
-
-"""
-from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg
-from matplotlib.figure import Figure
-import numpy as np
-
-fig = Figure(figsize=(5, 4), dpi=100)
-ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
-
-canvas = FigureCanvasAgg(fig)
-
-mu, sigma = 100, 15
-x = mu + sigma * np.random.randn(10000)
-
-# the histogram of the data
-n, bins, patches = ax.hist(x, 50, density=True)
-
-# add a 'best fit' line
-y = ((1 / (np.sqrt(2 * np.pi) * sigma)) *
-     np.exp(-0.5 * (1 / sigma * (bins - mu))**2))
-line, = ax.plot(bins, y, 'r--')
-line.set_linewidth(1)
-
-ax.set_xlabel('Smarts')
-ax.set_ylabel('Probability')
-ax.set_title(r'$\mathrm{Histogram of IQ: }\mu=100, \sigma=15$')
-
-ax.set_xlim((40, 160))
-ax.set_ylim((0, 0.03))
-
-canvas.draw()
-
-s = canvas.tostring_rgb()  # save this and convert to bitmap as needed
-
-# Get the figure dimensions for creating bitmaps or NumPy arrays,
-# etc.
-l, b, w, h = fig.bbox.bounds
-w, h = int(w), int(h)
-
-if 0:
-    # Convert to a NumPy array
-    X = np.fromstring(s, np.uint8).reshape((h, w, 3))
-
-if 0:
-    # pass off to PIL
-    from PIL import Image
-    im = Image.fromstring("RGB", (w, h), s)
-    im.show()