Printing and Exporting Figures with MATLAB

Application Format Support

Generally, you should fine-tune your graphic while it's still in MATLAB. However, if you have chosen an appropriate file format, you may be able to make further edits to it once it has been imported to another application. For example, on the PC, the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format can be edited in many Windows applications, such as PowerPoint.

This section lists some popular target applications and which types of files can be edited from within them. Your results may vary with the version of operating system, and version of your software application.

Editable Formats in Other Applications

Application	Format	Command Switch(es) (command line only)
Adobe Illustrator	ILL	-dill
Corel Draw*	PCX or EMF	-dpcx, -dmeta
HTML	JPEG and PNG	-djpeg, -dpng
LaTeX	EPS	-deps, -deps2, -depsc, -depsc2
Paintbrush	PCX, BMP	-dpcx, -dbmp
PowerPoint 97	EMF	-dmeta, -djpeg, -deps, -dpcx, -dpng, dtiff, -dbmp,
Scientific Word**	EPS	-deps, -depsc, -deps2, or -depsc2
MS Word and other Microsoft Products***	BMP, EMF, HGL, EPS, JPG, PCX, TIFF	-dbmp, -deps (or -depsc, -deps2, or -depsc2), -dhpgl, -djpeg, -dmeta, -dpcx16, -dpcx24, -dpcx256, -dpcxmono, -dtiff

*The graphic appears to be black and white until you make the picture full screen.

**You cannot control the size of the graphic in Scientific Word, so be sure to make the image the size you want when you create it in MATLAB. For directions on setting the size of a graphic for export, see Size and Position of Printed or Exported Figures.

***With the exception of the EMF format (-dmeta), the only editing you can do on an imported image is to resize it or add annotations. EMF is fully editable in Word.

Note that HPGL is really a printer driver, not a file format. You can save a figure to a printable file using HPGL, and then import this into Word. For instructions on printing to a file, see Printing to a File.

Importing MATLAB Graphics into Other Applications