exportgraphics function output has incorrect font and spacing between characters

I'm exporting a figure of a plot using the exportgraphics function. For both vector .pdf and raster .png files, the sans serif LaTeX font is not shown correctly in both cases.

Snippet:

exportgraphics(fig, ...
    'output.png', ...
    'Resolution', 300) 

exportgraphics(fig, ...
    'output.pdf', ...
    'ContentType', 'vector')

Where 'fig' is the figure object in question. Also, MATLAB shows the following warning:

% Error updating Text.
% Font cmss10 is not supported.

Below is a comparison of what I see in MATLAB and what the exported .png looks like.

MATLAB:

PNG output:

The vector output in PDF looks just like the PNG.

Answer 1

[Avni]

Hi Johann,

I understand that facing some problem while exporting the plotted graph with Sans Serif Latex font.

To achieve this, please refer to the following code as example:

fig = figure; 
plot(magic(5)); 
xlabel("testing (X)", "FontName","SansSerif", "Interpreter","latex") 
ylabel("testing (Y)", "FontName","SansSerif", "Interpreter","latex") 
ax = gca; 
exportgraphics(ax, 'output.png','Resolution', 300)  
exportgraphics(ax,'output.pdf', 'ContentType', 'vector') 

By following these steps, you should be able to export a figure with labels in sans serif LaTeX font in both JPG and PDF formats using “exportgraphics” function in MATLAB.

You can refer to these MATLAB documentations for more information:

https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/exportgraphics.html?s_tid=answers_rc2-2_p5_MLT

https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fontname.html

I hope this helps.

[Johann Hemmer]

Thanks for your help, Avni.

Unfortunately, if you look closely in the image you uploaded yourself, you will notice that the font family of the labels is LaTeX's Serif font, and not the Sans Serif one. That is even stranger since the ticks are the correct Sans Serif font. I tested your code and got the same result.

[Liam]

Hi @Johann, did you find a solution to this problem? I am coming up with the same issue.

[Johann Hemmer]

Hi @Liam! No, sorry. I switched to Python. Good luck!

[Johann Hemmer]

@Liam, hopefully you were able to fix this or you moved on. However, if you're still facing this issue, how I've dealt with it since then is to export all graphics as PDFs and then open them in InkScape and correct or improve them there, since it is so much easier.