Add more line styles and allow customized line styles

Currently, matlab only supports 5 line styles (-,-.,--,:,none). And the dash-dot -. and dotted : lines are poor and look like a solid line. There is no neat way to have more line styles without influencing other elements, such as the legend, in the figure. I am wondering why matlab has never provided more line options, such as long dashed, dash-dot-dot, wavy lines, etc. Besides, it would be very nice if we can easily customize our own line styles, like the python matplotlib （https://matplotlib.org/stable/gallery/lines_bars_and_markers/linestyles.html). Adding these functions would not be so difficult for mathworks but will certainly make matlab more powerful in plotting figures. It will also make matlab more competitive. I do not see any reason not to add these features. Therefore, I strongly suggest mathworks to add these changes to matlab in the next version.

[Stephen23]

"Therefore, I strongly suggest mathworks to add these changes to matlab in the next version."

This is a forum of random volunteers, we are not TMW.

If you want TMW to make changes to MATLAB then make an enhancement request.

[Feng]

thanks. I have sent a request to mathworks. Hope they can add these features in the future.

Answer 1

[Sulaymon Eshkabilov]

There are some matlab functions written by 3rd party MATLAB developers by which you can adjust the line type and length of each dash, etc - SEE LINK that you can download and use/edit as you wish.

Here is another discussion solution proposed by MathWorks - see

All the best.

[Feng]

Thanks. I am aware of these 3rd party scripts. But they are not as convenient as the supported line styles and may have problems in the legend, etc. I just want to raise this question and hope mathworks can add these features in the future. I have sent a suggestion to them.

[Marco Riani]

This is just to say that I fully agree with what @Feng on 19 Oct 2023 wrote.