MATLAB R2014b Graphics --> How to get thin lines (grid, curves, box,...)

Hello, I started to use the new graphics (2014b) and I see quite some interesting things.

However, I am disappointed to see that one of the most interesting aspects of the MATLAB graphs is gone :( To be clear, I was very happy with the graphs having very thin lines (box, curves,...). It gave a very sophisticated look. Now, even when I try to force the thickness of the lines and the box to very low values, I still get an ugly thick box and lines :( The very thin grid lines I used to have are now very rough and thick... Unless I am doing something wrong ? Any solution for that ?

I raised the question in November 17th of last year without any answer so far: http://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2014/10/14/matlab-r2014b-graphics-part-2-using-graphics-objects/#comment-44544

Please look at the code below. Executed in 2014a or 2014b gives a huge difference in the precision and look of the graphs. Thanks a lot.

if true
  % Example of code
x=1:10;
plot(x,x.*x,'-o','Color', 'r','MarkerFaceColor',[1,0.69,0.39],'LineWidth',0.01);
set(gcf, 'Units', 'centimeters');
afFigurePosition = [0.1 18 10 7]; % [pos_x pos_y width_x width_y]
set(gcf, 'Position', afFigurePosition);
set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'auto');
grid on;
set(gcf, 'Renderer', 'painters');
resol='300';
print('-dmeta', ['-r' resol], '-painters', ['ExamplCurve_' resol '.emf']);
end

[Oliver Woodford]

Further references to this issue here: https://github.com/altmany/export_fig/issues/31

[Md Zillur Rahman]

you can solve this issue by using

GridAlpha — Grid-line transparency 0.15 (default) | value in the range [0,1] Grid-line transparency, specified as a value in the range [0,1]. A value of 1 means opaque and a value of 0 means completely transparent.

Setting this property sets the associated mode property to manual.

Example: ax.GridAlpha = 0.5

Answer 1

[Seth Kosowsky]

I had a similar problem with gridlines, and I found the problem is that when matlab renders into meta, it renders the grid lines as lines, iff the gridalpha properties are = 1.0. If gridalpha values are < 1 (default), then it renders the gridlines as rectangle objects. These objects become thick lined things in, say, powerpoint when you 'ungroup' the object. So, for example for the grid lines, set(gca, 'gridalpha', 1) and set(gca, 'minorgridalpha', 1) solves it. (well it did for me). Good luck.

[Samir]

Thanks Seth, I already used this property which is a nice work around but it does not solve the problem: the grid lines get opaque or transparent but they stay thick. Tanks anyway...

[Mike Garrity]

As Yair said in that other thread, there was a fix for the minimum line width bug in R2015b. Have you tried that version?

[Samir]

Hi Mike, Yes I did try this version. Unfortunately, the lines behave strange: the thickness and darkness of the lines is not uniform over the full graph (parts of the graph have thick and dark lines and other parts show thin to invisible lines). :(

Answer 2

[Saurabh Harsh]

Axes have a property named GridLineStyle which can be modified to get desired grid line style. There is also the property LineWidth for Axes which controls Width of axes outline, tick marks and grid lines together. These properties and more can be found in the following doc page:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/axes-properties.html

[Image Analyst]

Samir's "Answer" moved here:

*Hi, As you can see, I used (in my example given above) the "LineWidth" property and it does not help. Something has changed in 2014b that make the lines by default thick and does not allow to thin them down. :(*

Answer 3

[Alex]

Have you tried changing the figure parameter GraphicsSmoothing?

set(gcf,'GraphicsSmoothing','off')

[Samir]

This is not helping :(

[Debarupa Som]

I am having similar problems. Also while copying and pasting the figures in word, some of the grid lines are missing. Tried gridalpha, line width and graphic smoothing but it is not getting any better.