Keras is a high-level neural networks API, written in Python and capable of running on top of TensorFlow, CNTK, or Theano. It was developed with a focus on enabling fast experimentation. Being able to go from idea to result with the least possible delay is key to doing good research.

Use Keras if you need a deep learning library that:

• Allows for easy and fast prototyping (through user friendliness, modularity, and extensibility).
• Supports both convolutional networks and recurrent networks, as well as combinations of the two.
• Runs seamlessly on CPU and GPU.

Guiding Principles

• User friendliness: Keras is an API designed for human beings, not machines. It puts user experience front and center. Keras follows best practices for reducing cognitive load: it offers consistent & simple APIs, it minimizes the number of user actions required for common use cases, and it provides clear and actionable feedback upon user error.

• Modularity: A model is understood as a sequence or a graph of standalone, fully-configurable modules that can be plugged together with as few restrictions as possible. In particular, neural layers, cost functions, optimizers, initialization schemes, activation functions, regularization schemes are all standalone modules that you can combine to create new models.

• Easy extensibility: New modules are simple to add (as new classes and functions), and existing modules provide ample examples. To be able to easily create new modules allows for total expressiveness, making Keras suitable for advanced research.

• Work with Python: No separate models configuration files in a declarative format. Models are described in Python code, which is compact, easier to debug, and allows for ease of extensibility.