Can I make a scatterplot with custom marker symbols?

MATLAB has a range of default symbols to use as point markers on a scatterplot (circle, asterisk, point, etc.). But is there any way of replacing these with a custom symbol? Specifically, I would like to give each point a thumbnail image representing the identity of that point. Is that possible?

Answer 1

[Thomas]

Short answer: NO. User defined markers cannot be used in MATLAB.. Though you could draw (image) them in each location..

The markers in MATLAB are..

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/linespec.html

'+'  Plus sign
'o'  Circle
'*'  Asterisk
'.'  Point
'x'  Cross
'square' or 's'   Square
'diamond' or 'd'  Diamond
'^'  Upward-pointing triangle
'v'  Downward-pointing triangle
'>'  Right-pointing triangle
'<'  Left-pointing triangle
'pentagram' or 'p'  Five-pointed star (pentagram)
'hexagram' or 'h'''  Six-pointed star (hexagram)
'none'  No marker (default)

[Chris Taylor]

Thanks! I suspected that was the case. So how would I go about drawing an image at a specified location within the scatterplot?

[Oleg Komarov]

Placing images in a scatter plot it's not a trivial task (at least for me). I gave it a shot but I found problematic to keep the dimension of the image fixed no matter the axis limits.

[Thomas]

It is difficult to place custom images.. though fonts or texts might be easier.

this link might help:http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-1AS2T/index.html?product=ML&solution=1-1AS2T

[Oleg Komarov]

You can ry this example:

load discrim

h = gscatter(ratings(:,1),ratings(:,2),group,'br','xo');

hold on

troll = imread('http://ragecollection.com/img/ragefaces/trollface.png');

imagesc([680 710],[8800 8100],troll)

[Chris Taylor]

Thanks to you both for your help. I think by the sound of it, in the end it's going to be easier to export the data to another program and make my graph there...

Answer 2

[Oleg Komarov]

To show a practical example using Thomas' link in the comments:

% Sample scattergroup

load discrim
h = gscatter(ratings(:,1),ratings(:,2),group,'br','xo');

hold on

% Define the font and desired character (smiley)

font = 'Wingdings';
m    = 'J';

% Use text to plot the character

x = get(h(2),'Xdata');
y = get(h(2),'Ydata');
text(x,y,m,'fontname',font,'HorizontalAl','center','color','r')

% Delete old markers

delete(h(2))