ggtheme for Common Plotting Functions

Apply professional theme styles to common MATLAB plotting functions (bar, line, area, box, violin). Inspired by R's ggthemr package.

Basic usage - boxchart

figure('Units','normalized', 'Position',[.1,.3,.45,.5])

% Read temperature dataset (built-in MATLAB sample data)
tbl = readtable('TemperatureData.csv');

% Define categorical month order (Jan to Dec)
monthOrder = {'January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', ...
    'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'};
tbl.Month = categorical(tbl.Month, monthOrder);

% Create grouped box chart
boxchart(tbl.Month,tbl.TemperatureF,'GroupByColor',tbl.Year, 'ColorGroupWidth',1)

ylabel('Temperature (F)')
legend()

exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoBox_ori.png')

%% Apply ggtheme styling to box chart
pause(.5)
ggThemeBox(gca,'camouflage');
exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoBox_gg.png')

Basic usage - bar

figure('Units','normalized', 'Position',[.1,.3,.7,.4])
% Sample data: 6 groups × 5 categories
y = [6 3 4 2 1; 12 6 3 2 1; 
     9 5 2 2 2;  7 3 1 1 0; 
     5 2 2 1 1;  2 1 1 0 1];
% Generate category labels: 'class-1' to 'class-5'
labels = compose('class-%d', 1:5);

% Left subplot: grouped bar chart
ax1 = subplot(1, 2, 1);
bar(y); legend(labels)
% Right subplot: stacked bar chart
ax2 = subplot(1, 2, 2);
bar(y, 'stacked'); legend(labels, 'Direction','normal')

exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoBar_ori.png')

%% Apply ggtheme styling to both subplots
pause(.5)
ggThemeBar(ax1, 'dust');
ggThemeBar(ax2, 'dust');
exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoBar_gg.png')

Basic usage - plot

% demoPlot
figure('Units','normalized', 'Position',[.1,.3,.4,.45])

t = 0:0.6:3*pi;
% Plot three curves with different styles
plot(t, sin(t) .* 1.2, 'LineWidth', 2, 'Marker', 'o');
hold on;
plot(t, cos(t ./ 2), 'LineWidth', 2, 'Marker', 's');
plot(t, t, 'LineWidth', 2, 'Marker', '^');

% Add legend with custom labels and position
lgd = legend(' y = 1.2·sin(t)', ' y = cos(t/2)', ' y = t');
lgd.Location = 'best';
title(lgd, 'Func');

exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoPlot_ori.png')

%% Apply ggtheme styling to line plot
pause(.5)
ggThemePlot(gca, 'flat_dark');
exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoPlot_gg.png')

Basic usage - area

figure('Units','normalized', 'Position',[.1,.3,.4,.45])

x = linspace(-8, 12, 100);
% Generate three probability density curves
y1 = normpdf(x,  4, 6);                                
y2 = normpdf(x,  0, 1) * 0.5 + normpdf(x, 4, 2) * 0.5; 
y3 = normpdf(x, -3, 2);                                

% Plot area charts
hold on;
area(x, y1);
area(x, y2);
area(x, y3);

% Set axis limits
xlim([-8, 12]);

% Add legend
labels = compose('density-%d', 1:3);
legend(labels, 'Direction', 'normal');

exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoArea_ori.png')

pause(.5)
ggThemeArea(gca,'grape');
exportgraphics(gcf, '_demoArea_gg.png')

All theme

% Available themes:
%   'flat', 'flat_dark', 'camouflage', 'chalk', 'copper', 'dust',
%   'earth', 'fresh', 'grape', 'grass', 'greyscale', 'light',
%   'lilac', 'pale', 'sea', 'sky', 'solarized'

Acknowledgements:

The color palettes in this toolbox are adapted from the R package 'ggthemr'

(https://github.com/Mikata-Project/ggthemr), originally created by Ciaran Tobin

and maintained by the Mikata-Project team.