Transparent background for figures

I get the following warning in r2011a

set(gcf, 'Color', 'None')
Warning: Setting the ColorSpec to 'none' for a figure will not be allowed in a future release.

I use the "none" color so that I can print pdf and eps files with transparent backgrounds. How are you supposed to set a transparent background?

[Fangjun Jiang]

+1. I'd like to know about 'transparent'.

[Jose Sosa Lopez]

if your graph is in figure 1, you can put:

figure (1)

set(gcf, 'color', 'none');

set(gca, 'color', 'none');

Answer 1

[Oliver Woodford]

You can edit the eps file generated by print, and remove the line which creates the background rectangle, thus making the background transparent.

Or you can use the latest version of export_fig, which will do this for you when the -transparent option is specified, and will allow you to export to pdf as well.

[Daniel Shub]

Will take a look at how you edit the eps file in export_fig (and will likely accept your answer once I do). I still don't understand why the change in MATLAB was made.

[Daniel Shub]

I finally got a chance to dig around in export_fig. For those silly enough not to use export_fig, the line in the eps file can be found with: regexp(l, ' *0 +0 +\d+ +\d+ +rf *[\n\r]+', 'start').

Answer 2

[Jan]

Digging in the source of print I've found the colornone command in 2011b. It has a help section, but is not included in the local or net docs.

But the warning appears also. The print command simply disables the warning:

warning('off','MATLAB:hg:ColorSpec_None')

This does not look very trustworthy.

[Daniel Shub]

It seems odd that they are taking away functionality without providing a replacement. This usually means you are doing something odd. In this case, I don't think I am. My guess is that there will be a replacement by the time it is obsolete.

[Oliver Woodford]

Note that this is not just a warning. The behaviour of print in R2011b has changed over R2011a. You cannot now save an eps or pdf with no background color, and TMW has provided no way around this (to my knowledge).

Answer 3

[Fangjun Jiang]

What do you mean transparent? Do you mean white background color? Would the pdf or eps file come out the same as set(gcf,'Color','None') as set(gcf,'Color',[1 1 1])?

I used to use whitebg(). But it's not really white background anymore since the default color is [.8 .8 .8]. whitebg() just turns it to [.3 .3 .3]. Same is the function colordef(). I

[Daniel Shub]

The benefit of a transparent background (as opposed to white) for printing is that if you overlay two figures with a transparent background the top figure doesn't block the bottom figure. With a white background you cannot stack figures. Similarly, if you are placing your figure on top of a background (e.g., in a poster, talk or lecture) the transparent background on the figure lets the poster background show through.

[Fangjun Jiang]

Okay, Thanks! When I tried set(gcf,'color','none') and export to an .eps file and then in MS Word, insert picture>From file, the front picture still blocks the view of the back picture. Why?

[Jan]

On the screen you see the TIFF preview. Does the blocking background concern the printout or an exported PDF also?

[Fangjun Jiang]

@Jan, I am using .eps file.

%%

plot(1:10);

set(gcf,'color','none');

saveas(gcf,'test.eps');

The test.eps only shows the axes. It doesn't show the margin we usually see in the MATLAB figure window.

[Daniel Shub]

MS Word used to do funky things with EPS files and the tiff preview. You might want to try powerpoint. Make a slide with a black background and import the figure. Even better is use something like inkscape/gimp/illustrator and play around with the eps file directly.

[Fangjun Jiang]

PowerPoint is the same. Anyway, I certainly can understand the difference between transparent and white. Thanks!

[Daniel Shub]

I just looked at your comments again more closely. You need:

set(gca,'color','none')

[Fangjun Jiang]

It's still the same for me, in MS Word or PowerPoint. In your question, shout it be gca or gcf?

[N Kando]

Maybe need to do both?

[Sri Adiyanti]

I have trouble with preparing jpeg of plots with a transparent background (no colour).

I am using R2019a and can't produce figure with a transparent background when print it using print (gcf,...').

When using 'InvertHardcopy', 'off' it produces a grey background.

Any suggestion?

Answer 4

[Samaneh Manavi]

In the figure window, select property inspector by double clicking on your plot. There is a box styling section in which you can select the background color, by selecting none you can have it transparent. If you want this setting already in your code, you can select "Generate Code" in the file tab of the figure window and have all your manual settings in code.

Samaneh Manavi

Answer 5

[Richard Quist]

You can use the exportgraphics command, which was introduced in R2020a, to easily generate output with a transparent background if the output format supports it. For example, the following code will export the plot to a PDF file with background transparency.

plot(rand(4));

exportgraphics(gca,'plot.pdf','BackgroundColor','none')

If you also want the background of the axes (the area behind the lines on the plot) to also be transparent in the exported file, set the axes color to 'none':

set(gca, 'color', 'none');

exportgraphics(gca,'plot2.pdf','BackgroundColor','none')

Another benefit of using exportgraphics is that the generated output is closely cropped around the exported content, eliminating excess "white space" around the plot.

[Sri Adiyanti]

Thanks Richard, looks promising.

I can't use exportgraphics as in print in my m.script?

print(gcf, filename, '-djpeg', '-r1200');

exportgraphics(gcf, 'test.jpeg','Resolution',300)

It works with "print" commnd, but gave me this error for exportgraphics:

Execution of script exportgraphics as a function is not supported:

C:\Users\sadiy\OneDrive\Desktop\MATLAB\Spirograph\Yanti\Systematic\exportgraphics.m

[Richard Quist]

@Sri Adiyanti: From your comment above, it looks like you have another function named exportgraphics (C:\Users\sadiy\OneDrive\Desktop\MATLAB\Spirograph\Yanti\Systematic\exportgraphics.m) that is shadowing (hiding) the exportgraphics function that is provided by MATLAB

Assuming you have R2020a or later, what output do you get when running the following command?

which -all exportgraphics

My guess is that will return both the MATLAB exportgraphics path as well as the path to the one in your Spirograph\Yanti\Systematic\ folder. If that's the case I can think of a couple of approaches to resolve the conflict:

1. remove the Spirograph\Yanti\Systematic\ from your MATLAB path (see the rmpath command)
2. rename Spirograph\Yanti\Systematic\exportgraphics.m to something else

Answer 6

[Farrar Telford]

You should add axis off. this works for me:

set(gca, 'Color', 'None');

axis off

[Alexis]

Nice one, this worked for me too!