How to italicize a portion of a plot label while keeping the sans-serif font?

Hi, currently I have this:

I would only like a portion of a label, say c/R_p [-], to be italicized.

This is what I do to get the above upper x-label:

xlabel(ax2, '{\fontfamily{cmss}\selectfont Chord $\mathsf{c/R_p} \, \textsf[-]$}', 'Interpreter', 'latex');

I tried combining \mathsf with \mathit, but, depending on who I use first, either I get no italics or I get italics but in the standard latex font (hence, I lose sans-serif).

I know this can be done somehow, as here they managed to do it:

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

A lot of the LaTeX options do not work in MATLAB because many of the font options are not supported.

That aside, use \it to begin the italicized part and \rm to end it —

ax2 = axes;
plot(ax2, 1:3, [2.1 5.1 4.1])
% xlabel(ax2, '{\fontfamily{cmss}\selectfont Chord $\mathsf{c/R_p} \, \textsf[-]$}', 'Interpreter', 'latex');
xlabel(ax2, '{Chord $\it{c/R_p} \ [-]\rm$}', 'Interpreter', 'latex');

That works, except for the [—] part. It may not be possible to make that work as well. (The font is not sans-serif as well here. Nevertheless, italicising only a part of the string works as intended.)

.

[Andrea Improta]

Hi, thanks for your answer.

Following your advice, I did:

xlabel(ax2, '{\fontfamily{cmss}\selectfont Chord $\it{c/R_p} \ [-]\rm$}', 'Interpreter', 'latex');

And got this:

The upper x-label got italicized but the sans-serif font is not there anymore.

I tried this as well:

xlabel(ax2, '{\fontfamily{cmss}\selectfont Chord $\mathsf{\it{c/R_p}} \ [-]\rm$}', 'Interpreter', 'latex');

But got the same result as above, italicized but no sans-serif

[Star Strider]

My pleasure!

I am not certain what to suggest at this point. I am sure you have LaTeX resources at hand, however I rely on the Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX. Perhaps it has a solution. It may be that you will have to enforce the sans-serif font at the beginning of each substring that you want to have that property. The \rm cancels in this instance only the italicisation, however it may also cancel everything else.

As a rule it ‘nests’, so that {\it text \bf more text \rm \rm normal} should produce something like text more text normal in this illustration, however it may be more complicated that that when using different fonts as well. (My experience with LaTeX outside of MATLAB is not recent.)

[Andrea Improta]

I also thought it would just be about nesting, but apparently in MATLAB it doesn't work like that. I will check the introduction to LaTeX you sent me. I am accepting your answer, thank you again.

[Star Strider]

Thank you!

As always, my pleasure!