Matlab Figures Demystified

Matlab uses object oriented structures to define graphics objects. Figures, axes and UIcontrols are referred as Handle Graphics Objects. A simple hierarchy to have in mind is:

Figure>

                Axes>

                                Image, plot, scatter, line, etc

                UIobjects>

                                Menus, panels, toolbars, etc

In general to create a figure you use a handle (figure’s name that Matlab recognize) and the name of the figure (that is printed in window’s title bar).
 

fig_1 = figure('Name', ‘name-of-the-figure-1’);

You can add options, as:

fig_1 = figure('Name', ‘name-of-the-figure-1‘, 'NumberTitle', 'off', 'menubar', 'none');

You can create more than one figure:

fig_2 = figure('Name', ‘name-of-the-figure-2‘, 'NumberTitle', 'off', 'menubar', 'none');

You can select in witch figure to plot (or how to make a figure the active figure):

Figure(fig_1);

And you can clear the contents of a figure in order to plot something different inside (from an image to an animation):

clf;

More tips comming...