MATLAB 6.0 Release Notes (MATLAB Release Notes)

MATLAB Release Notes

Graphics Features

This section is organized into the following subsections:

Property Editor

MATLAB 6.0 has a new graphical user interface for editing the properties of Handle Graphics objects in MATLAB figures. This tool, called the Property Editor, provides access to many properties of the Handle Graphics objects in a graph, including figures, axes, lines, lights, patches, images, surfaces, rectangles, text, and the root object. Using this tool, you can change the thickness of a line, add titles and axes labels, add lights, and perform many other plot editing tasks.

The following figure shows the components Property Editor interface.

Starting the Property Editor

There are several ways to start the Property Editor.

If plot editing mode is enabled in the figure, you can start the Property Editor by right-clicking on an object and selecting the Properties option from the context menu. You can also start the Property Editor by double-clicking on an object in the graph. (Double-clicking on a text object opens a text editing box around the text but does not start the Property Editor.)

If plot editing mode is not enabled, you can start the Property Editor by selecting either the Figure Properties, Axes Properties, or Current Object Properties from the figure window Edit menu. These options automatically enable plot editing mode, if it is not already enabled. You can also start the Property Editor from the command line using the propedit function.

Note Once you start the Property Editor, you can keep it open throughout an editing session. If you click on another object in the graph, the Property Editor displays the set of panels associated with that object type. You can also use the Property Editor's navigation bar to select an object to edit.

Printing Features

Exporting Figures to the Clipboard. If you use the clipboard to export your figures to graphics-format files, you can now use the Figure Copy Template Preferences panel to optimize your figure. You can apply templates specifically for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, or you can customize your own template.

Page Setup Dialog Box. The Page Setup dialog box now presents an enhanced set of options on four tabs.

Tab
Enables you to...

Size and Position

Print at screen size or set the size of the printed figure

Set the top and left margins and the height and width of the figure

Fill the page, restore the aspect ratio, or center the figure

Choose the units in which the settings are made

Paper

Choose the paper type or set a custom size

Choose units

Choose paper orientation

Lines and Text
Set the lines and text in the printed or exported figure to color or black and white

Axis and Figure

Keep the same settings as are on the screen, or let MATLAB rescale your axes ticks and labels

Print or not print uicontrols that are part of the figure

Keep the screen background color, or let MATLAB change the background color to white

Override the MATLAB default choice of renderer

Tab	Enables you to...
Size and Position	Print at screen size or set the size of the printed figure Set the top and left margins and the height and width of the figure Fill the page, restore the aspect ratio, or center the figure Choose the units in which the settings are made
Paper	Choose the paper type or set a custom size Choose units Choose paper orientation
Lines and Text	Set the lines and text in the printed or exported figure to color or black and white
Axis and Figure	Keep the same settings as are on the screen, or let MATLAB rescale your axes ticks and labels Print or not print uicontrols that are part of the figure Keep the screen background color, or let MATLAB change the background color to white Override the MATLAB default choice of renderer

UNIX Print Dialog Box. The UNIX Print dialog box for MATLAB 6.0 has been rewritten. It has many new features available both from the Print dialog box and from a new Options dialog box:

From the Print dialog box, you can now set the figure size, select a print driver from a scroll list rather than typing it in, and set whether or not you want MATLAB to rescale your axis and ticks limits when it prints your graphic.
The new Print Options dialog box, which launches from the Print dialog, enables you to make many settings, including choosing a renderer and setting the printer resolution.

Note Note that you can no longer set the paper orientation or the paper type from the Print dialog box; you must use the Page Setup dialog box instead.

Preference that Controls Color or Black and White Printing. The Figure window printing preference that enables you to set a session-to-session default for sending either black and white or colored lines and text to printers is now located on the General Preferences panel.

Note that if your figure does not print correctly in color or black and white according to the figure setting, override the setting from the File/Preferences menu. For example, if you specify printing lines and text in color to a color printer, and you don't get your results in color, go to File/Preferences and select Always send as color.

PaperSize Property. The figure property PaperSize is now writable. You can also set the new '<custom>' paper type from the command line.

Note See Basic Printing and Exporting in the MATLAB graphics documentation for more information about printing and exporting figures in MATLAB Version 6.0.

Programming and Data Types Features 3-D Visualization Features