Why cannot I set font of `xlabel` in `plotmf` in MATLAB?

Question

I use the example of plotmf function in the document and at the same time, I want to change the font of x label. So I use the code below:

fis = readfis('tipper');
plotmf(fis,'input',1)

xlabel('\fontname{宋体} 论域')
ylabel('\fontname{宋体} 隶属度')

But the xlabel shows it in its original state as \fontname{宋体} 论域, and the ylabel is what I want. The figure is below:

So why does the fontname command in xlabel not work?

My proposition

• I change the order of xlabel and ylabel in the code, for thinking the failure may occur only at the first label. But it is still the xlabel that doesn't work.
• I use another plot function, such as plot. Then both xlabel and ylabel work properly.

So I think the key point is the definition of xlabel of plotmf function.

MATLAB R2023b.

My method to avoid the problem (one can neglect)

Then I use another method avoiding the fontname in label using gca as

fis = readfis('tipper');
plotmf(fis,'input',1)

xlabel('论域')
ylabel('\fontname{宋体} 隶属度')

set(gca, 'FontName', '宋体');

And it works. But I want to simultaneously show different fonts in a label, such as xlabel('\fontname{宋体} 时间\fontname{Times new roman} (s)'), and gca fails.

So this is not a good method, and it doesn't explain the issue.

Answer 1

This is likely caused by this function setting the interpreter used by the label. Each text object has an Interpreter property that can be set to 'tex' (default), 'latex' or 'none'. Putting it back to the default value should fix this:

fis = readfis('tipper');
plotmf(fis,'input',1)

xlabel('\fontname{宋体} 论域', 'Interpreter', 'tex')
ylabel('\fontname{宋体} 隶属度')

But an easier way to set the font is by using the FontName property, which not only applies to the axes as a whole, but can be set to each text object:

xlabel('论域', 'FontName', '宋体')

Answer 2

If you need multiple fonts in the XLabel, a quick fix is to delete the XLabel object and then re-xlabel it.

i.e.

delete(get(gca,'XLabel'));
xlabel('\fontname{宋体} 时间\fontname{Times new roman} (s)'),