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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...
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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?

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