Starting MATLAB R2025a, the MATLAB Desktop supports themes, including a dark theme and a light theme. You can then customize each of these themes individually to better suit your needs. Customizations can be made using the "Settings" window (previously called the "Preferences" panel) by going to the "Home" tab on the MATLAB Toolstrip and clicking the "Settings" button.
They also can be made programmatically using the Settings API, which is currently limited to light theme.
Customizing settings one-by-one can be tedious. To simplify the process, you can use the MATLAB Color Theme Extensions, a community-driven project available on File Exchange that allows you apply to color customizations quickly and easily.
MATLAB Color Theme Extensions is available for MATLAB R2025a and later. This add-on allows you to import, export, and apply custom color schemes for both dark and light themes, all with just a few commands. Inspired by the popular MATLAB Schemer project (which does not support the new theming architecture), this extension brings theme flexibility to the latest MATLAB versions.
MATLAB Color Theme Extensions provides a library of standard color scheme files, such as "cobalt.json", "monokai.json", "solarized-light.json", "solarized-dark.json", etc. These are stored in an easy-to-read JSON format. When you import a scheme that is designed for dark theme, the MATLAB desktop first switches to dark theme and then applies the scheme color settings.
Note: MATLAB Color Theme Extensions (like Schemer) are limited to customizing the color settings that are available through the MATLAB "Settings" window. Some interface elements are not customizable.
Example usage:
This command changes the MATLAB theme to dark theme and applies the colors from the "cobalt.json" file to your MATLAB environment.
>> import_scheme('schemes/cobalt.json');
For more information, refer to the description of the project MATLAB Color Theme Extensions.
