Why are the default values and factory values for figure color not consistent in MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a)?

The 'factory' value for figure color and axes color is black [0 0 0], obtained from the following command:

get(0,'FactoryFigureColor')

However, the default value for figure color is grey ([0.8 0.8 0.8]):

get(0,'DefaultFigureColor')

When I change default values and would like to change back to the original default values I would use:

set(0,'DefaultFigureColor','factory')

to change it back to the factory settings. However then the figures will be black.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This is expected behaviour in MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a) and prior versions.

The factory settings for figure and axes color are black since in MATLAB 4 those were also the default values. The default values were changed in MATLAB 5, however the factory settings stayed the same.

To workaround this issue change the default value directly:

set(0,'DefaultFigureColor',[0.8 0.8 0.8])