uicontrol and annotation produce different fonts despite identical settings

Hi,

Can anyone explain to me why the text in the following two figures is not identical?

% create long sample string

str = string(repmat('A ',1,128));

% create first figure, filling entire screen

fig1 = figure('Units','normalized','Position', [0 0 1 1],'Toolbar','none','Resize','off');

% create texbox within that figure via UI control

ctemp = uicontrol('Style','text','Units','normalized','Position', [0 0 1 1],...

'String',str,'FontName','Arial','FontSize',12,...

'FontWeight','normal','Visible','on','HorizontalAlignment','left');

% create second figure, again filling entire screen

fig2 = figure('Units','normalized','Position', [0 0 1 1],'Toolbar','none','Resize','off');

% create texbox within that figure via annotation

temp = annotation(fig2,'textbox',[0 0 1 1],'String',str,'EdgeColor','none', ...

'FontName','Arial','FontSize',12,'FontWeight','normal','Margin',0);

In particular, despite identical settings (Arial, 12pt, normal), the "annotation" command produces a larger/bolder font compared to the "uicontrol" command. On my screen, with a 1200x1920 resolution, the text in fig1 e.g. fits in one line, but has to be broken into two lines in fig2.

Answer 1

[Simar]

Hi Mark,

I understand that despite using the same settings for text, the figures created using ‘uicontrol’ and ‘annotation’ are not displaying identical text. Please refer to the image attached below.

After running the code provided by you, following observations were made:

• The difference in appearance between the text in the two figures is due to the different ways MATLAB handles ‘uicontrol’ and ‘annotation’.
• ‘uicontrol’ (Figure 1) is a low-level UI component that directly uses the system's rendering for the text, which is why it looks smaller and less bold which is seen in Figure 1. This control allows for more precise control over the appearance of the text.
• ‘annotation’ is a high-level function that creates an annotation object in a figure. It uses MATLAB's rendering engine to display the text, which can cause the text to appear larger and bolder which is seen in Figure 2.
• The 'FontSize' property in ‘uicontrol’ and ‘annotation’ may not correspond to the same actual size. The 'FontSize' in ‘uicontrol’ is in character units, while in ‘annotation’, it is in points. Character units are based on the default ‘uicontrol’ font of the system, and it varies with the specific operating system and the system preferences. Points are a standard unit of measure in the printing industry.

By manually adjusting the 'FontSize' parameter in either or both cases, it is possible to achieve a consistent appearance of the text in both scenarios.

Refer to the documentation links below to know more about ‘uicontrol’ and ‘annotation’:

• https://in.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/matlab/ref/uicontrol.html
• https://in.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/matlab/ref/annotation.html?searchHighlight=annotation&s_tid=doc_srchtitle

Hope it helps!

Best Regards

Simar

[Mark Kerssenfischer]

Thanks!

But I do not think your statement "By manually adjusting the 'FontSize' parameter in either or both cases, it is possible to achieve a consistent appearance of the text in both scenarios" is correct.

At least I do not get it working.

[Simar]

Yes, it was a workaround (manual adjustment) to achieve the results as close as possible in the figures. Achieving an exact match in appearance between the two would be challenging due to the differences in rendering methods used by these functions.

Please refer to image below: