diff --git a/doc/devel/MEP/MEP28.rst b/doc/devel/MEP/MEP28.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+=======================================================
+ MEP28: Semi-graphical specification of subplots layout
+=======================================================
+
+.. contents::
+   :local:
+
+
+Status
+======
+
+**Discussion**
+
+Branches and Pull requests
+==========================
+
+* `Issue 1109 <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/1109>`_
+* `Initial thread (mailing list) <https://www.mail-archive.com/matplotlib-devel%40lists.sourceforge.net/msg11325.html>`_
+* `MEP28 PR <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/4384>`_
+
+
+Abstract
+========
+
+This MEP proposes a new graphical way of specifying simple to moderately
+complex subplot layouts using arrays of strings.
+
+
+Detailed description
+====================
+
+The most popular way of specifying subplots layout is to use the ``subplot``
+function. This ``subplot`` function is rather unintuitive and makes it
+difficult to specify moderately complex subplots. There are alternatives, some
+of them very powerful, but they generally require a lot of code to specifiy
+precisely the layout. There might be room for an in-between method that rely on
+the graphical description of the layout. It can cover all ``subplot`` cases and
+should allow to specify moderately complex subplots.
+
+
+Examples
+--------
+
+::
+
+  "AB"
+  ┌────────┐┌────────┐
+  │ A      ││ B      │
+  │        ││        │
+  │        ││        │
+  └────────┘└────────┘
+
+  "ABB"
+  ┌──────┐┌──────────┐
+  │ A    ││ B        │
+  │      ││          │
+  │      ││          │
+  └──────┘└──────────┘
+
+  "ABD"
+  "CCD"
+  ┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐
+  │ A     ││ B     ││ D     │
+  │       ││       ││       │
+  │       ││       ││       │
+  └───────┘└───────┘│       │
+  ┌────────────────┐│       │
+  │ C              ││       │
+  │                ││       │
+  │                ││       │
+  └────────────────┘└───────┘
+
+  "AaBb"
+  ┌───────┐┌─┐┌───────┐┌─┐
+  │ A     ││ ││ B     ││ │
+  │       ││ ││       ││ │
+  │       ││ ││       ││ │
+  └───────┘└─┘└───────┘└─┘
+
+  "  b  "
+  "aABCc"
+              ┌───────┐
+              └───────┘
+  ┌─┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌─┐
+  │ ││ A     ││ B     ││ C     ││ │
+  │ ││       ││       ││       ││ │
+  │ ││       ││       ││       ││ │
+  └─┘└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘└─┘
+
+
+Syntax
+------
+
+A subplot is described using a capital letter, from ``A`` to ``Z`` such that
+only 26 subplots can be specified at once. Colorbars are specified using
+non-capital letters, from ``a`` to ``z``. The main command is the ``layout``
+command that returns an ordered dictionary of axes (subplots and colorbars)
+following the lexicographic order, mixing capital and small letters. For
+example::
+
+  A,B,C = layout("ABC").values()
+  A,B,b = layout("ABb").values()
+
+A layout can span several lines. In such a case, it is necessary the specify the
+layout using an array of strings::
+
+  A,B = layout("A", "B").values
+
+The size of a subplot is relative to the size of its string representation, a
+single letter representing the logical unit. For example::
+
+
+  A,B = layout("AAB").values()
+
+means ``A`` is two logical block wide while ``B`` is one logical block
+wide. The final result should be ``A`` width to be 2/3 while ``B`` width should
+be 1/3.
+
+Colorbars can be specified using a small letter and has either a fixed width
+(vertical colorbar) or a fixed height (horizontal colorbar). For example::
+
+  A,a = layout("Aa").values()
+
+The exact width or height of colorbars must be specified throught matplotlib
+properties. The difficulty being the attachment of the colorbar to the right
+figure. In the example above, the size of ``A`` should be logical block and the
+colorbar ``a`` should be attached to the right side of ``A``::
+
+  A,a,B = layout("AaB").values()
+
+In such a case, ``A`` and ``B`` size is one logical block and ``a`` should be
+attached to the right side of ``A``.
+
+
+UTF8 handling
+-------------
+
+Characters from any language can actually be used but this might prevent the
+distinction between capital and small letters for some language.
+
+
+Subplot aspects
+---------------
+
+It is not yet clear how a subplot aspect can be specified and how this would
+constrain the overall layout. We need more user-cases.
+
+
+Implementation
+==============
+
+The simplest cases (without colorbars) can be implemented using `GridSpec
+<http://matplotlib.org/users/gridspec.html>`_ using the code proposed by
+Till Stensitzki::
+
+  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+  def parase_layout(s):
+      s = [list(i) for i in s]
+      s_T = transpose_list(s)
+      n_cols = len(s[0])
+      n_rows = len(s)
+      added_axes = {}
+      for i, row in enumerate(s):
+          for j, ch in enumerate(row):
+              if not ch in added_axes:
+                  width = n_rows-row.index(ch)-row[::-1].index(ch)
+                  height = n_cols-s_T[j].index(ch)-s_T[j][::-1].index(ch)
+                  added_axes[ch] = ((i,j), width, height)
+      return added_axes, (n_rows, n_cols)
+
+  def transpose_list(l):
+      return map(list, zip(*l))
+
+  def layout(s):
+      d, (nr, nc) = parase_layout(s)
+      gs = plt.GridSpec(nr, nc)
+      for pos, width, height in d.values():
+          t = gs[pos[0]:pos[0]+height, pos[1]:pos[1]+width]
+          plt.subplot(t)
+
+  s = ['AAB', 'AAB', 'CCC']
+  layout(s)
+
+Taking colorbars into account may require a more elaborated approach (geometry
+manager) in order to enforce the different constraints.
+
+
+Backward compatibility
+======================
+
+No backward compatibility since this MEP proposes a new method.
+
+
+Alternatives
+============
+
+* `Axes <http://matplotlib.org/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.axes>`_
+* `Subplot <http://matplotlib.org/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplot>`_
+* `GridSpec <http://matplotlib.org/users/gridspec.html>`_
diff --git a/doc/devel/MEP/index.rst b/doc/devel/MEP/index.rst
@@ -29,3 +29,4 @@ Matplotlib Enhancement Proposals
    MEP25
    MEP26
    MEP27
+   MEP28
-Original file line number
+Diff line change
@@ Expand Up / @@ -29,3 +29,4 @@ Matplotlib Enhancement Proposals @@
        MEP25
        MEP26
        MEP27
+       MEP28