rectangle
R2026bCreate rectangle with sharp or curved corners
Syntax
Description
rectangle('Position', creates
a rectangle in 2-D coordinates. Specify pos)pos as
a four-element vector of the form [x
y w h] in data units. The x and y elements
determine the location and the w and h elements
determine the size. The function plots into the current axes without
clearing existing content from the axes.
rectangle('Position', adds
curvature to the sides of the rectangle. For different curvatures
along the horizontal and vertical sides, specify pos,'Curvature',cur)cur as
a two-element vector of the form [horizontal vertical].
For the same length of curvature along all sides, specify cur as
a scalar value. Specify values between 0 (no curvature) and 1 (maximum
curvature). Use [1 1] to create an ellipse or circle.
rectangle(___, specifies
rectangle properties using one or more name-value arguments. For example,
Name=Value)FaceColor="red" specifies a red fill color. You can specify
rectangle properties with any of the input argument combinations in the previous
syntaxes.
rectangle( creates
the rectangle in the axes specified by ax,___)ax instead
of in the current axes (gca). The option ax can
precede any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.
r = rectangle(___)r to modify properties
of the rectangle after it is created. For a list of properties, see Rectangle Properties. You can return
an output argument with any of the previous syntaxes.
Examples
Draw a rectangle that has a lower left corner at the point (1,2). Make the width of the rectangle 5 units and the height 6 units. Then, change the axis limits.
rectangle('Position',[1 2 5 6])
axis([0 10 0 10])
Draw a rectangle that has a lower left corner at (0,0) and an upper right corner at (2,4). Create the rectangle with curved corners by specifying the curvature as the scalar value 0.2. For data units of equal length along both the x-axis and y-axis, use axis equal.
figure rectangle('Position',[0 0 2 4],'Curvature',0.2) axis equal
Add a second rectangle that has the shortest side completely curved by specifying the curvature as the scalar value 1.
rectangle('Position',[3 0 2 4],'Curvature',1)
Add a third rectangle and use different curvatures along the horizontal and vertical sides. Use a horizontal curvature of 0.5 to make 50 percent of each horizontal side curved. Use a vertical curvature of 1 to make both vertical sides completely curved.
rectangle('Position',[6 0 2 4],'Curvature',[0.5,1])
Draw a circle by setting the Curvature property to [1 1]. Draw the circle so that it fills the rectangular area between the points (2,4) and (4,6). The Position property defines the smallest rectangle that contains the circle.
pos = [2 4 2 2]; rectangle('Position',pos,'Curvature',[1 1]) axis equal
Draw a red rectangle using the same position values to show how the circle fills the rectangular area.
rectangle('Position',pos,EdgeColor="r")
Draw a rectangle and specify the fill color, outline color, and outline width.
rectangle('Position',[1,2,5,10],FaceColor=[0 .5 .5],EdgeColor="b", ... LineWidth=3)
Add a rectangle to the current axes and return the rectangle object, r.
r = rectangle('Position',[0 0 1 1]')
r =
Rectangle with properties:
FaceColor: 'none'
EdgeColor: [0.1294 0.1294 0.1294]
LineWidth: 0.5000
LineStyle: '-'
Curvature: [0 0]
Position: [0 0 1 1]
Show all properties
Modify the rectangle after creation using r. Change the fill color, outline color, and outline width.
r.FaceColor = [0 .5 .5];
r.EdgeColor = "b";
r.LineWidth = 3;
Input Arguments
Name-Value Arguments
Specify optional pairs of arguments as
Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is
the argument name and Value is the corresponding value.
Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the
pairs does not matter.
Example: rectangle('Position',[0 0 1 1],EdgeColor="k",FaceColor=[0 .5
.5])
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and the 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 |
This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.
| Palette | Palette Colors |
|---|---|
Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default. |
|
|
|
You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.
RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using
H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).
Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB =
get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").
Example: "blue"
Example: [0
0 1]
Example: "#0000FF"
Outline color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short
name. The default RGB triplet 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 from0toF. 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 the 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 |
This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.
| Palette | Palette Colors |
|---|---|
Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default. |
|
|
|
You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.
RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using
H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).
Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB =
get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").
Example: "blue"
Example: [0
0 1]
Example: "#0000FF"
Line width, specified as a positive value in point units.
Example: 0.75
Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.
| Line Style | Description | Resulting Line |
|---|---|---|
"-" | Solid line |
|
"--" | Dashed line |
|
":" | Dotted line |
|
"-." | Dash-dotted line |
|
"none" | No line | No line |
Version History
Introduced before R2006a
