Using LaTeX packages in MATLAB Plots

Hello,

I am trying to find out if there is a way to install LaTeX packages to use in MATLAB plots (e.g. x and y axes labels, titles, text annotation, etc.). In particular, I would like to use the blackboard bold font (\mathbb{}) in the amsmath package.

Similar questions include:

• LaTeX Interpreter and Blackboard bold (\mathbb{}) for text ( link )
• How do you use the LaTeX blackboard font in MATLAB? ( link )
• Including package to create MATLAB labels using LaTeX ( link )

After probing into this, I quickly realized that this is much harder to do then I initially thought. (I am also a bit surprised that this isn't already supported.) It seems like in older versions of MATLAB it was possible to modify the tex.m file somehow to achieve the desired results; however, this is not possible as in the newer versions of MATLAB, I cannot edit the file at all (note: I am using version 2017b of MATLAB).

I am also looking to see if there is a solution native to MATLAB. Unless I have exhausted all other options, I do not wish to do something like export the figure to an eps file using psfrag and then add the fonts, or use matlab2tikz just for this.

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

[Yash]

Hi @Luke

If you want only a few characters, you can use the Unicode decimal code for them. For example, the Unicode decimal code for ℝ is 8477 and it can be used as follows:

mathbbR = char(8477)

I hope this helps!

[Yash]

I further checked and found that MATLAB supports only a few blackboard bold letters (C,H,N,P,Q,R,Z). I have came up with this script which might help:

function doubleStruck = getDoubleStruckLetter(normalLetter)
    keyValuePairs = {'C', char(8450); 'H', char(8461); 'N', char(8469); 
                    'P', char(8473);  'Q', char(8474); 'R', char(8477);
                    'Z', char(8484);};
    
    % Create the map using the cell array
    doubleStruckMap = containers.Map(keyValuePairs(:, 1), keyValuePairs(:, 2));
    
    % Check if the input letter exists in the map
    if isKey(doubleStruckMap, normalLetter)
        doubleStruck = doubleStruckMap(normalLetter);
    else
        doubleStruck = 'Double-struck version not available for the given letter.';
    end
end

Just add the following function as a separate script getDoubleStruckLetter.m in your working folder or MATLAB Path and call the function as follows:

getDoubleStruckLetter('C')

ans = 'ℂ'

getDoubleStruckLetter('R')

ans = 'ℝ'

getDoubleStruckLetter('B')

ans = 'Double-struck version not available for the given letter.'

I hope this helps you in working with blackboard bold letters.