Text Properties
Legend text appearance and behavior
Legend text properties control the appearance and behavior of the legend title. By changing property values, you can modify certain aspects of the title. Use dot notation to refer to a particular object and property:
l = legend('show'); l.Title.String = 'My Title'; l.Title.Color = 'red'; c = l.Title.Color
Text
String
— Text to display as title
character array | string array | cell array | categorical array | numeric value
Text to display as title, specified as a character array, string array, cell array, categorical array, or numeric value.
Example: 'my title'
Example: string('my title')
Example: {'first line','second line'}
Example: 123
To include numeric variables with text in a title, use the num2str
function. For
example:
x = 42;
str = ['The value is ',num2str(x)];
To include special characters, such as superscripts, subscripts, Greek
letters, or mathematical symbols, use TeX markup. For a list of supported
markup, see the Interpreter
property.
To create multiline titles:
Use a string array, where each element contains a line of text, such as
string({'line one','line two'})
.Use a cell array where each cell contains a line of text, such as
{'first line','second line'}
.Use a character array where each row contains a line of text, such as
['abc'; 'ab ']
. If you use this technique, each row must contain the same number of characters.Use
sprintf
to create text with a new line character, such assprintf('first line \n second line')
.
Numeric titles are converted to text using
sprintf('%g',value)
. For example,
12345678
displays as
1.23457e+07
.
Note
The words
default
,factory
, andremove
are reserved words that will not appear in a title when quoted as a normal character vector. To display any of these words individually, precede them with a backslash, such as'\default'
or'\remove'
.If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB® uses the values in the array, not the categories.
Interpreter
— Text interpreter
'tex'
(default) | 'latex'
| 'none'
Text interpreter, specified as one of these values:
'tex'
— Interpret characters using a subset of TeX markup.'latex'
— Interpret characters using LaTeX markup.'none'
— Display literal characters.
TeX Markup
By default, MATLAB supports a subset of TeX markup. Use TeX markup to add superscripts and subscripts, modify the font type and color, and include special characters in the text.
Modifiers remain in effect until the end of the text.
Superscripts and subscripts are an exception because they modify only the next character or the
characters within the curly braces. When you set the interpreter to 'tex'
,
the supported modifiers are as follows.
Modifier | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
^{ } | Superscript | 'text^{superscript}' |
_{ } | Subscript | 'text_{subscript}' |
\bf | Bold font | '\bf text' |
\it | Italic font | '\it text' |
\sl | Oblique font (usually the same as italic font) | '\sl text' |
\rm | Normal font | '\rm text' |
\fontname{ | Font name — Replace
with the name of
a font family. You can use this in combination with other modifiers. | '\fontname{Courier} text' |
\fontsize{ | Font size —Replace
with a numeric
scalar value in point units. | '\fontsize{15} text' |
\color{ | Font color — Replace
with one of
these colors: red , green ,
yellow , magenta ,
blue , black ,
white , gray ,
darkGreen , orange , or
lightBlue . | '\color{magenta} text' |
\color[rgb]{specifier} | Custom font color — Replace
with a
three-element RGB triplet. | '\color[rgb]{0,0.5,0.5} text' |
This table lists the supported special characters for the
'tex'
interpreter.
Character Sequence | Symbol | Character Sequence | Symbol | Character Sequence | Symbol |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
| α |
| υ |
| ~ |
| ∠ |
| ϕ |
| ≤ |
|
|
| χ |
| ∞ |
| β |
| ψ |
| ♣ |
| γ |
| ω |
| ♦ |
| δ |
| Γ |
| ♥ |
| ϵ |
| Δ |
| ♠ |
| ζ |
| Θ |
| ↔ |
| η |
| Λ |
| ← |
| θ |
| Ξ |
| ⇐ |
| ϑ |
| Π |
| ↑ |
| ι |
| Σ |
| → |
| κ |
| ϒ |
| ⇒ |
| λ |
| Φ |
| ↓ |
| µ |
| Ψ |
| º |
| ν |
| Ω |
| ± |
| ξ |
| ∀ |
| ≥ |
| π |
| ∃ |
| ∝ |
| ρ |
| ∍ |
| ∂ |
| σ |
| ≅ |
| • |
| ς |
| ≈ |
| ÷ |
| τ |
| ℜ |
| ≠ |
| ≡ |
| ⊕ |
| ℵ |
| ℑ |
| ∪ |
| ℘ |
| ⊗ |
| ⊆ |
| ∅ |
| ∩ |
| ∈ |
| ⊇ |
| ⊃ |
| ⌈ |
| ⊂ |
| ∫ |
| · |
| ο |
| ⌋ |
| ¬ |
| ∇ |
| ⌊ |
| x |
| ... |
| ⊥ |
| √ |
| ´ |
| ∧ |
| ϖ |
| ∅ |
| ⌉ |
| 〉 |
| | |
| ∨ |
| 〈 |
| © |
LaTeX Markup
To use LaTeX markup, set the interpreter to 'latex'
. For inline
mode, surround the markup with single dollar signs ($
). For
display mode, surround the markup with double dollar signs
($$
).
LaTeX Mode | Example | Result |
---|---|---|
Inline |
'$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$' |
|
Display |
'$$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$$' |
|
The displayed text uses the default LaTeX font style. The
FontName
, FontWeight
, and
FontAngle
properties do not have an effect. To change the
font style, use LaTeX markup.
The maximum size of the text that you can use with the LaTeX interpreter is 1200 characters. For multiline text, this reduces by about 10 characters per line.
For examples that use TeX and LaTeX, see Greek Letters and Special Characters in Chart Text. For more information about the LaTeX system, see The LaTeX Project website at https://www.latex-project.org/.
InterpreterMode
— Selection mode for Interpreter
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the Interpreter
property,
specified as one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theInterpreter
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofInterpreter
that you specify. To specify the value, set theInterpreter
property. When you set theInterpreter
property, theInterpreterMode
property changes to'manual'
.
Font Style and Appearance
Color
— Text color
[0 0 0]
(default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r'
| 'g'
| 'b'
| ...
Text color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short
name. The default value of [0 0 0]
corresponds to black.
For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.
An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]
, for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7]
.A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (
#
) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0
toF
. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes"#FF8800"
,"#ff8800"
,"#F80"
, and"#f80"
are equivalent.
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.
Color Name | Short Name | RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|---|---|
"red" | "r" | [1 0 0] | "#FF0000" | |
"green" | "g" | [0 1 0] | "#00FF00" | |
"blue" | "b" | [0 0 1] | "#0000FF" | |
"cyan"
| "c" | [0 1 1] | "#00FFFF" | |
"magenta" | "m" | [1 0 1] | "#FF00FF" | |
"yellow" | "y" | [1 1 0] | "#FFFF00" | |
"black" | "k" | [0 0 0] | "#000000" | |
"white" | "w" | [1 1 1] | "#FFFFFF" | |
"none" | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No color |
Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.
RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|
[0 0.4470 0.7410] | "#0072BD" | |
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980] | "#D95319" | |
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250] | "#EDB120" | |
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560] | "#7E2F8E" | |
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880] | "#77AC30" | |
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330] | "#4DBEEE" | |
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840] | "#A2142F" |
Example: 'blue'
Example: [0
0 1]
Example: '#0000FF'
ColorMode
— Selection mode for Color
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the Color
property, specified as
one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theTextColor
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofColor
that you specify. To specify the value, set theColor
property. When you set theColor
property, theColorMode
property changes to'manual'
.
FontAngle
— Character slant
'normal'
(default) | 'italic'
Character slant, specified as 'normal'
or
'italic'
.
Not all fonts have both font styles. Therefore, the italic font might look the same as the normal font.
FontAngleMode
— Selection mode for FontAngle
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the FontAngle
property, specified
as one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theFontAngle
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofFontAngle
that you specify. To specify the value, set theFontAngle
property. When you set theFontAngle
property, theFontAngleMode
property changes to'manual'
.
FontName
— Font name
supported font name | "FixedWidth"
Font name, specified as a supported font name or "FixedWidth"
. To display
and print text properly, you must choose a font that your system supports. The default
font depends on your operating system and locale.
To use a fixed-width font that looks good in any locale, use "FixedWidth"
.
The fixed-width font relies on the root FixedWidthFontName
property. Setting the root FixedWidthFontName
property causes an
immediate update of the display to use the new font.
FontNameMode
— Selection mode for FontName
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the FontName
property, specified
as one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theFontName
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofFontName
that you specify. To specify the value, set theFontName
property. When you set theFontName
property, theFontNameMode
property changes to'manual'
.
FontSize
— Font size
scalar value greater than zero
Font size, specified as a scalar value greater than zero in point units. The default font size depends on the specific operating system and locale.
If you change the axes font size, then MATLAB automatically sets the font size of the colorbar to 90% of the axes font size. If you manually set the font size of the colorbar, then changing the axes font size does not affect the colorbar font.
FontSizeMode
— Selection mode for FontSize
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the FontSize
property, specified
as one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theFontSize
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofFontSize
that you specify. To specify the value, set theFontSize
property. When you set theFontSize
property, theFontSizeMode
property changes to'manual'
.
FontWeight
— Character thickness
'normal'
(default) | 'bold'
Character thickness, specified as 'normal'
or
'bold'
.
MATLAB uses the FontWeight
property to select a font from
those available on your system. Not all fonts have a bold weight. Therefore, specifying
a bold font weight can still result in the normal font weight.
FontWeightMode
— Selection mode for FontWeight
'auto'
(default) | 'manual'
Selection mode for the FontWeight
property, specified
as one of these values:
'auto'
— Use the same value as theFontWeight
property for the associatedLegend
object.'manual'
— Use a value ofFontWeight
that you specify. To specify the value, set theFontWeight
property. When you set theFontWeight
property, theFontWeightMode
property changes to'manual'
.
Visible
— State of visibility
"on"
(default) | on/off logical value
State of visibility, specified as "on"
or "off"
, or as
numeric or logical 1
(true
) or
0
(false
). A value of "on"
is equivalent to true
, and "off"
is equivalent to
false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
"on"
— Display the object."off"
— Hide the object without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible object.
Version History
Introduced in R2016a
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