How to increase margin when export graphics-Illegal option 'padding' given

Hi there,

When exporting graphs, the margins were too narrow. Thus, i set the padding following the instruction https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/exportgraphics.html

However, error message shown even when I simply copied and paste the example from the help center.

bar(1:5)
title("My Bar Chart")
ax = gca;
exportgraphics(ax,"100pixelpadding.png","Padding",100)

Error using exportgraphics

Illegal option 'padding' given.

Answer 1

[Hitesh]

Hi Huei-Ting,

I too encountered the similar issue and I am assuming that you are running this piece of code on MATLAB Desktop. In the MATLAB documentation, they have mentioned that "padding" property is Supported in MATLAB Online only (since R2024a).

Kindly refer to the MATLAB Documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2025a/matlab/ref/exportgraphics.html#:~:text=%7C%20positive%20number-,Supported%20in%20MATLAB%20Online%20only%20(since%20R2024a),-Padding%20around%20the

You need to use MATLAB Online to use "padding" property since it is not supported in Desktop version. It works in MATLAB online version. It also works in MATLAB R2025 prerelease version. Most probably they will add it in the Desktop version as well.

Answer 2

[Vedant Shah]

Hi @Huei-Ting,

The “Padding” attribute of the “exportgraphics” function is supported in MATLAB Online R2024a and onwards. It is not supported in MATLAB Desktop version, as mentioned in the following documentation:

https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/exportgraphics.html#mw_c1367a50-523c-47e6-a207-fcb49c39db87

However, if you are using the desktop version, there is another way to add padding to the graph. The code for this is shown below:

figure; 
bar(1:5); 
title("My Bar Chart"); 

% Adjust figure size 
set(gcf, 'Position', [100, 100, 600, 400]); % [left, bottom, width, height] 

saveas(gcf, 'mybarchart.png'); 

This code provides the desired output:

For more information about the “set” and “saveas” functions, you can refer to the following documentation:

• https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/set.html
• https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/saveas.html

[Huei-Ting]

I tried

set(gcf, 'Position', [100, 100, 600, 400]); % [left, bottom, width, height] 

or even

set(gcf, 'Position', [200, 200, 1200, 800]); 

Unfortunately, it is still not working. Perhaps I need to keep testing the variables to find out how it will work after I export the figure. They look good on the matlab figure but still leaving no margin after I exported the .tif file.

Tina

[Alois Gmur]

Hello,

I am also using the 2024b Version where neither Padding, Width, Height nor Units is a legal command.

Could you find a solution to this problem in the meantime?

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards