Transparent figures from 2014b are not transparent when pasted to outside programs

Recently started using 2014b and

set(gca, 'color', 'none')

does not seem to work in 2014b. I created a figure, opened it in both of my versions on this machine and 2013a produces transparent axes while 2014b does not.

What I mean by transparent is that when I Copy Figure from the figure Edit menu and paste the figure somewhere else (tried a few places to paste but Power Point is where I need it to go) that the pasted image will have no background, will let whatever else is below it show through. (When I copy, ctrl^C, from one figure to another the pasted axes are transparent but that is not all I need. I need to paste to other programs.)

I have set the "Figure background color preference" in Preferences/Figure copy Template/Copy Options/ to be "Transparent background". Also the Clipboard format setting is set to save as "Preserve information (metafile if possible)".

All of the settings that I am using are the same as I've used in all previous version of MatLAB.

Is there something that someone knows of that I am missing? Is this worthy of a bug report that I should be sending to technical support as some have suggested?

Thanks, Cal

[Timothy Gorman]

I am having the exact same problem with 2014b and haven't been able to figure anything out so it is not just you, I think.

[Vittorio]

Same problem here!

Answer 1

[Vittorio]

Atfer contacting MathWorks support, I was told that this is a known bug in 2014b. The problem has been fixed in 2015a. If you cannot upgrade to a newer release, this is a workaround:

fig = figure();
line;
set(gca,'Color',[0 1 0]);
% save the original background color for later use
background = get(gcf, 'color'); 
% specify transparent background
set(gcf,'color',[0.8 0.8 0.8]);
% create output file
set(gcf,'InvertHardCopy','off'); 
print('-dpng', 'notTransparent.png');
% read image data back in
cdata = imread('notTransparent.png');
% write it back out - setting transparency info
imwrite(cdata, 'transparent.png', 'png', 'BitDepth', 16, 'transparency', [0.8 0.8 0.8])%background)

Hope this helps

Answer 2

[kclamb]

My plot transparency seems to paste to word when I edit>Copy Figure. Below is how I edited the transparency of the plot.

myplot = plot(data);
myplot.Color=[myplot.Color, transparency]; %transparency between 0 and 1.

Maybe ctrl-alt-printscreen would be an acceptable alternative?

Answer 3

[Jose Sosa Lopez]

if yor graph is in figure 1, you can put:

figure (1)

set(gcf, 'color', 'none');

set(gca, 'color', 'none');