Undocumented Matlab
  • SERVICES
    • Consulting
    • Development
    • Training
    • Gallery
    • Testimonials
  • PRODUCTS
    • IQML: IQFeed-Matlab connector
    • IB-Matlab: InteractiveBrokers-Matlab connector
    • EODML: EODHistoricalData-Matlab connector
    • Webinars
  • BOOKS
    • Secrets of MATLAB-Java Programming
    • Accelerating MATLAB Performance
    • MATLAB Succinctly
  • ARTICLES
  • ABOUT
    • Policies
  • CONTACT
  • SERVICES
    • Consulting
    • Development
    • Training
    • Gallery
    • Testimonials
  • PRODUCTS
    • IQML: IQFeed-Matlab connector
    • IB-Matlab: InteractiveBrokers-Matlab connector
    • EODML: EODHistoricalData-Matlab connector
    • Webinars
  • BOOKS
    • Secrets of MATLAB-Java Programming
    • Accelerating MATLAB Performance
    • MATLAB Succinctly
  • ARTICLES
  • ABOUT
    • Policies
  • CONTACT

Javacomponent background color

October 12, 2011 3 Comments

In this website, I have often shown how Matlab application functionality can be significantly enhanced by including Java components in the Matlab GUI, using the built-in semi-documented javacomponent function (which I described here last year).
Using java components in Matlab is simple and easy, but there are a few annoying catches. One of these is the fact that the default Matlab figure background color ([0.8, 0.8, 0.8]) is a different shade of gray than the default uicontrol background color ([0.9255, 0.9137, 0.847]). javacomponents use the same background color as uicontrols.

hPanel = uipanel('units','pixe', 'pos',[30,30,200,100], 'title','Matlab uipanel');
jLabel = javax.swing.JLabel('Java Label');
[jhlabel,jContainer]=javacomponent(jLabel, [250,50,100,50], gcf);

hPanel = uipanel('units','pixe', 'pos',[30,30,200,100], 'title','Matlab uipanel'); jLabel = javax.swing.JLabel('Java Label'); [jhlabel,jContainer]=javacomponent(jLabel, [250,50,100,50], gcf);

Javacomponents use different default background color than figures
Javacomponents use different default background color than figures

While Matlab users are familiar with updating Matlab colors, doing so with Java colors is a bit different. We have two basic ways to align the javacomponent background color with the figure’s: either change the figure’s Color property to the Java component’s bgcolor, or vice versa:

Changing the javacomponent‘s background color to the figure color

% Fix the Java component:
% Variant #1
bgcolor = get(gcf, 'Color');
jLabel.setBackground(java.awt.Color(bgcolor(1),bgcolor(2),bgcolor(3)));
% Variant #2
bgcolor = num2cell(get(gcf, 'Color'));
jLabel.setBackground(java.awt.Color(bgcolor{:}));
% Fix the Matlab panel uicontrol
set(hPanel, 'BackgroundColor', get(gcf,'Color'));

% Fix the Java component: % Variant #1 bgcolor = get(gcf, 'Color'); jLabel.setBackground(java.awt.Color(bgcolor(1),bgcolor(2),bgcolor(3))); % Variant #2 bgcolor = num2cell(get(gcf, 'Color')); jLabel.setBackground(java.awt.Color(bgcolor{:})); % Fix the Matlab panel uicontrol set(hPanel, 'BackgroundColor', get(gcf,'Color'));

controls with fixed background colors
controls with fixed background colors

Changing the figure’s color to the javacomponent‘s background color

bgcolor = jLabel.getBackground.getComponents([]);
set(gcf, 'Color', bgcolor(1:3));

bgcolor = jLabel.getBackground.getComponents([]); set(gcf, 'Color', bgcolor(1:3));

figure with modified color to match the controls
figure with modified color to match the controls

Look at the list of related posts below for other articles related to colors in Matlab.

Related posts:

  1. Customizing figure toolbar background – Setting the figure toolbar's background color can easily be done using just a tiny bit of Java magic powder. This article explains how. ...
  2. The javacomponent function – Matlab's built-in javacomponent function can be used to display Java components in Matlab application - this article details its usages and limitations...
  3. Common javacomponent problems – The javacomponent function is very useful for placing Java components on-screen, but has a few quirks. ...
  4. Color selection components – Matlab has several internal color-selection components that can easily be integrated in Matlab GUI...
  5. Bold color text in the Command Window – Matlab Command Window text can be formatted *bold* since R2011b. ...
  6. cprintf – display formatted color text in the Command Window – cprintf is a utility that utilized undocumented Matlab desktop functionalities to display color and underline-styled formatted text in the Command Window...
Java Semi-documented function Undocumented feature
Print Print
« Previous
Next »
3 Responses
  1. Panos November 9, 2011 at 17:49 Reply

    hello,

    (How) is it possible to place the panel label(name) someplace else than the top of it?
    thanks in advance

    • Yair Altman November 10, 2011 at 10:15 Reply

      @Panos – you can easily get the handle of the panel label and then modify its Position property, as well as other aspects: color, font, and even component style, as described here: https://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/panel-level-uicontrols/

  2. Peng Liu July 19, 2019 at 11:07 Reply

    Hello Yair,

    is it possible to set transparency of javacomponents backgroud color? I tried setBackground(java.awt.Color(1, 0.98, 0.94, 0.5)) of my Spinning icon which I learned from your article as well. Here 0.5 defines the Alpha. But only at start and at end the transparency works. While the Spinning Icon runs, it doesn’t works. May you have some idea or Solutions?

Leave a Reply
HTML tags such as <b> or <i> are accepted.
Wrap code fragments inside <pre lang="matlab"> tags, like this:
<pre lang="matlab">
a = magic(3);
disp(sum(a))
</pre>
I reserve the right to edit/delete comments (read the site policies).
Not all comments will be answered. You can always email me (altmany at gmail) for private consulting.

Click here to cancel reply.

Useful links
  •  Email Yair Altman
  •  Subscribe to new posts (feed)
  •  Subscribe to new posts (reader)
  •  Subscribe to comments (feed)
 
Accelerating MATLAB Performance book
Recent Posts

Speeding-up builtin Matlab functions – part 3

Improving graphics interactivity

Interesting Matlab puzzle – analysis

Interesting Matlab puzzle

Undocumented plot marker types

Matlab toolstrip – part 9 (popup figures)

Matlab toolstrip – part 8 (galleries)

Matlab toolstrip – part 7 (selection controls)

Matlab toolstrip – part 6 (complex controls)

Matlab toolstrip – part 5 (icons)

Matlab toolstrip – part 4 (control customization)

Reverting axes controls in figure toolbar

Matlab toolstrip – part 3 (basic customization)

Matlab toolstrip – part 2 (ToolGroup App)

Matlab toolstrip – part 1

Categories
  • Desktop (45)
  • Figure window (59)
  • Guest bloggers (65)
  • GUI (165)
  • Handle graphics (84)
  • Hidden property (42)
  • Icons (15)
  • Java (174)
  • Listeners (22)
  • Memory (16)
  • Mex (13)
  • Presumed future risk (394)
    • High risk of breaking in future versions (100)
    • Low risk of breaking in future versions (160)
    • Medium risk of breaking in future versions (136)
  • Public presentation (6)
  • Semi-documented feature (10)
  • Semi-documented function (35)
  • Stock Matlab function (140)
  • Toolbox (10)
  • UI controls (52)
  • Uncategorized (13)
  • Undocumented feature (217)
  • Undocumented function (37)
Tags
ActiveX (6) AppDesigner (9) Callbacks (31) Compiler (10) Desktop (38) Donn Shull (10) Editor (8) Figure (19) FindJObj (27) GUI (141) GUIDE (8) Handle graphics (78) HG2 (34) Hidden property (51) HTML (26) Icons (9) Internal component (39) Java (178) JavaFrame (20) JIDE (19) JMI (8) Listener (17) Malcolm Lidierth (8) MCOS (11) Memory (13) Menubar (9) Mex (14) Optical illusion (11) Performance (78) Profiler (9) Pure Matlab (187) schema (7) schema.class (8) schema.prop (18) Semi-documented feature (6) Semi-documented function (33) Toolbar (14) Toolstrip (13) uicontrol (37) uifigure (8) UIInspect (12) uitools (20) Undocumented feature (187) Undocumented function (37) Undocumented property (20)
Recent Comments
  • Yair Altman (8 days 1 hour ago): Robot only runs when you tell it to run a command such as keyPress. If you don’t tell it to run a command, it uses no CPU, so there’s no need to remove the Robot...
  • Eric (8 days 13 hours ago): Hey @Kevin, can you share your code about create group of figures in the AppContainer? The container of multiples uifigures could be an amazing improvement over AppDesigner and its...
  • Elsa Smith (9 days 3 hours ago): I recently used java.awt.Robot to perform GUI testing on MATLAB and found it to be an extremely easy and useful way to control mouse movements.
  • Elsa Smith (9 days 4 hours ago): I’m suspecting that the slow performance of my GUI may be due to the use of java.awt.Robot. Is there a way to cancel/stop/remove the robot after it has been created, or is...
  • Michelle Kline (9 days 21 hours ago): *edit* tip about fopen(), not about fwrite(). ‘Wb’ vs. ‘wb’
  • Michelle Kline (9 days 21 hours ago): Thank you, Yair! With this previously-unknown-to-me tip about fwrite() performance, you have saved me literally hours of processing time. Michelle Kline Department of...
  • Alessandro Beda (22 days 9 hours ago): I found what I think is a bug related to this (tested in R2022 and R2023a). If I add a “ButtonDownFcn” to the plots (see example below), then the modified...
  • Nicholas (23 days 23 hours ago): Yair, Changing the desktop help options did not solve the issue. Though, it’s unclear how I could change these options in the Runtime, if that’s what you meant? I should...
  • Yair Altman (27 days 18 hours ago): @Francisco – this is one of those cases where you should ask MathWorks support. After all, you’re trying to use a supported Matlab functionality when you encountered...
  • Francisco Campos (28 days 6 hours ago): Hello, thanks for all your work that has been immensely useful for those working in the Matlab environment. I have been trying to replace matlabcontrol with the official...
  • Yair Altman (32 days 7 hours ago): Kei – this is possible, I believe that I saw this ability somewhere, a few years ago. I don’t remember exactly where, it will require a bit of research, but...
  • Kei (32 days 9 hours ago): Hello Yair Thank you for this great article. I would like to freeze first two columns in uitable. Do you know if such option is available? Since looks like this option is not available...
  • Andrés Aguilar (35 days 21 hours ago): Hello, has anyone tried to change the language of the DateComboBox? For example English -> French ————&# 8212;—- January -> Janvier April...
  • Yair Altman (44 days 19 hours ago): I posted my treeTable utility 10 years ago for anyone to use freely, on an as-is basis, without any warranty, updates or support. If you need any customization or assistance...
  • JY (44 days 20 hours ago): Yair, could you respond to this question please? I’m also finding it difficult to implement such a multi-hierarchy table. Thanks
Contact us
Captcha image for Custom Contact Forms plugin. You must type the numbers shown in the image
Undocumented Matlab © 2009 - Yair Altman
This website and Octahedron Ltd. are not affiliated with The MathWorks Inc.; MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The MathWorks Inc.
Scroll to top