Running out of ‘Markers’ while plotting is a common problem in MATLAB.
One way to overcome the problem is to use different letters from a particular font name (like Wingdings, or Zapf Dingbats). However, there is an issue to this solution. The problem arise from the inability of MATLAB to print letters from fonts like Wingdings.
A simple command
listfonts
will reveal that ‘Wingdings’ font types are not available in the bucket. Even when you add it, ‘Windows’ operating system containing Matlabmachine only print ‘rectangles’ again and again. In MAC OS it works fine apparently.
The alternative suggestion is to use one of the default fonts available in Matlab like ‘Zapf Dingbats’.
By using the decimal code, Matlabprints the actual text. On the other hand, while using the hexadecimal code, it prints the corresponding symbol.
For example,
figure;
text(0.5,0.5,char(065),'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',30); % char in decimal code
hold on;
prints the corresponding ZapfDingbats character, whereas
text(0.4,0.5,char(0x2721),'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',30); % char in hexadecimal code
hold off;
prints the corresponding ZapfDingbats graphic text.
The relevant decimal and hexadecimal values can be found in the following links:
Use the table given in the Unicode blocks for ‘Zapf Dingbats’ .
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapf_Dingbats
- https://help.adobe.com/en_US/framemaker/2015/using/using-framemaker-2015/Appendix/frm_character_sets_cs/frm_character_sets_cs-5.htm
Later, while using some of the legend modifiers methods as given below, a desired plot can be generated.
- https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/277438-marker-and-line-in-legend-in-matlab-plot#answer_216684
- https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/402235-how-can-i-use-a-custom-marker-for-plot-or-alternatively-add-a-text-item-in-the-legend
A detailed code to generate a plot with letters as markers from different fonts is given below. The code works fine for both linear and log scale plots.
% sample code to plot letters from a font as markers
clc; clearvars;
% Make some arbitrary data - linear scale
x = linspace(1,10,10);
y = x;
% Use TEXT to plot the character along the data
figure; subplot(121); % linear scale
l = plot(nan, nan); % creating an empty line before
text(x,y,char(0x2721),'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',10); % add the actual data
% Manually set axis limits, since TEXT does not do this for you
xlim([min(x)-1 max(x)+1])
ylim([min(y)-1 max(y)+1])
% legend change
l.XData = []; % remove its points from the axes
l.YData = [];
l.Color = [0 0 0]; l.LineStyle = 'none'; l.Marker = 'none';
leg = legend(l,strcat(char(0x2721),' Data'),'location','northwest');
set(leg,'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',10);
% finish
axis square; grid on; box on;
% Make some arbitrary data - log scale
x = linspace(1,10,10);
y = logspace(1,10,10);
subplot(122); % figure
l = plot(nan, nan); % creating an empty line before
text(x,y,char(0x2721),'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',10); % add the actual data
% Manually set axis limits, since TEXT does not do this for you
xlim([min(x)-1 max(x)+1])
ylim([min(y)-1 max(y)+1])
% legend change
l.XData = []; % remove its points from the axes
l.YData = [];
l.Color = [0 0 0]; l.LineStyle = 'none'; l.Marker = 'none';
leg = legend(l,strcat(char(0x2721),' Data'),'location','northwest');
set(leg,'fontname','ZapfDingbats','fontsize',10);
% finish
set(gca,'YScale','log');
axis square; grid on; box on;
(Credits: Kannan Munusamy. My friends found this way as efficient and the credits go to him)
