How do I insert a picture into a script?

I need to have an image in my code for users to reference. I don't want to imread or imload, I just want an immage pasted almost like a comment. Off to the side and not affecting the code at all. Can I do that?

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

If your script is a live script that you have open in the Live Editor, select the Insert tab of the Toolstrip then click the Image button.

[DKonk]

And if my script is NOT a live script? I'm writing a code that will be a beam calculator and output shear/moment diagrams (The purpose isn't very important). But when people use this code, I want them to be able to reference an image so they can put in appropriate lenghts, forces, moments etc.

[Image Analyst]

You could create a Word document or a PDF. Or maybe use publish

[Steven Lord]

This also works in live functions.

If you're asking if you can somehow embed a picture into a plain code file with the .m extension and have it automatically displayed in the Editor the answer is no. MATLAB program files with the .m are text files.

Depending on how much effort you want to put into this project, if this is part of a toolbox that you're writing you could create custom documentation.

Or you could create a simple app that allows users to enter the data then have the app call your computational function to compute the answer.

[DKonk]

This is unfortunately the answer I was looking for. The asnwer is no. Thanks!

Answer 2

[Hamid Farshi]

We have introduced a plain text .m based live script format, since 2025a release, which allows you to achieve this. The image will be stored for you at the bottom of your file. For more information on this format, please take a look at our documentation in here

Answer 3

[Jan]

It depends on how you would like to see the image. It cannot be displayed in the editor, because scripts are M-files and therefore pure text files. Of course ASCII-art would be possible.

• https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/4732-ascii-text-image-generator
• https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/11307-ascii-art-variation
• https://www.pinterest.de/keinze/ascii-art/

If you want to display it by imshow you can embed base64 encoded data:

% Create the data stream as ASCII:
img = randi([0, 255], 20, 30, 'uint8');  % Example image
B64 = org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
str = char(B64.encode(img(:))).';

% Store in the file:
img64 = ['0Ocg6aEYR4z19yj49XzMJGvqyvWnCdnvrcG+ZKcrtAhGCxjSsVHzCH', ...
    'Bhw8svfXKltcFGrqcpHn/1V5U5wEGBsuT1jCMmQddB0D7tWTJAnXla1JWM6', ...
    'knBwGGREw2Hx+8hkXgDVinLT4cqmkOnsL9zFTrpJ9OJ/xRxG/YBxtHeFWZC', ...
    'zG7pLkMlIt6UjCXan1mDZhM9Hy89agzn8X19VuZeHMdjPWcYIfH0kw88WtI', ...
    'DCyumu6VzjEu+MK8uXqDHFO3GfG9yToKC0cukYM+IWfDgjJ+WNU14O9gxOS', ...
    's6b0/sbi/n+nAcQmiYQ5q2OB5LUWyCFUPNB+26fZQ8dfaLhTt9n61lXvwJ4', ...
    'unLGUNVriK4G6d+x7fn5FWyMge+gHrnnJ7czpMuPeIHfSr6toB4D64KEoUY', ...
    '0dG4JqiE+abMdG7TFSIsZNTND2aGaqigSm4D+yobXzJ9VvPrDbxEbIzxavt', ...
    'Ns6qKsqotIP8rCI/hqzBedfso26VgMG17HpY5YpVASp1D0/u6WJUb6OHRQp', ...
    'gFbFApLWwYmXiys6MIEVGHp2jRt/eIUxucx2wXRCdHcIZ14ITxo/U9rUqrs', ...
    'RFBOarYWMesAZpj6gB2bHXFUsh4CS24eSdXmzG9PupEwzBJF5Oui2ykpa2i', ...
    '8TW1PB6bc3WpxVmpatfVQZ2Vit5DUR7wpXqji6WLuIX+NxscEGdyXcOgxe7', ...
    '5MSOyGIaH3Hxkq72FWSaWQwvBPnGwW7xlrrRxBVRsRTLSbuNkxGXOwWA3yv', ...
    'NTq3DVxCrc/YPiliczaL/TylGIFxwirX4wfiUO'];
B64 = org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
img = uint8(B64.decode(uint8(img64));
imshow(reshape(img, 20, 30));