MATLAB Creating Graphical User Interfaces

Fonts and Colors for Cross-Platform Compatibility

Fonts and Colors for Cross-Platform Compatibility

In this section...

“Default System Font” on page 10- 85

“Standard Background Color” on page 10- 86

Default System Font

By default, user interface controls (uicontrols) use the default font for the platform on

which they are running. For example, when displaying your UI on PCs, user interface

controls use MS San Serif. When your UI runs on a different platform, they use that

computer's default font. This provides a consistent look with respect to your UI and other

applications on the same platform.

If you have set the FontName property to a named font and want to return to the default

value, you can set the property to the string, 'default'. This ensures that MATLAB

software uses the system default at run-time.

pbh1.FontName = 'default';

Specify a Fixed-Width Font

If you want to use a fixed-width font for a user interface control, set its FontName

property to the string, 'fixedwidth'. This special identifier ensures that your UI uses

the standard fixed-width font for the target platform.

You can find the name of the fixed-width font that is used on a given platform by

querying the root FixedWidthFontName property.

get(groot,'FixedWidthFontName')

Use a Specific Font Name

You can specify an actual font name (such as Times or Courier) for the FontName

property. However, doing so may cause your UI to appear differently than you intended

when run on a different computer. If the target computer does not have the specified

font, it substitutes another font that may not look good in your UI or may not be the

standard font used on that system. Also, different versions of the same named font may

have different size requirements for a given set of characters.