When can the official provide a built-in zoom function for the figure？

I think many people need a convenient and fast built-in zoom function for the figure. Will mathworks considering add this feature in the future?

[Bruno Luong]

What else do you need beside what already provided by zoom function (see syntax with factor) and directly manipulate xlim, ylim zlim?

[Ren]

I mean, plus a mini figure with part of data at the original figure. The current method of adding coordinate axes is quite complex to operate.

Answer 1

[Shivam]

Hi Ren,

Based on what you have described, it seems that you want to zoom in on a certain portion of the figure using a built-in feature.

The MATLAB's current figure does not inherently offer a feature for zooming in and out and displaying the zoomed-in section in a mini figure, and I am not aware of their future upcoming features. But you can follow the below possible workarounds:

• Adding a new axes of the zoomed-in section in the same figure

% Define a time vector
t = linspace(0, 2*pi, 1000);
x = sin(t);

kinkLocation = pi;
kinkMagnitude = 0.5;

% Add a kink to the sine wave
modifiedSignal = x + (t > kinkLocation) * kinkMagnitude;

% Plot the sine wave with the kink
figure, plot(t, modifiedSignal)
xlabel('Time'), ylabel('Amplitude')
title('Sine Wave with a Kink')

% Create a new axes in the same figure window to show the zoomed in version
axes('position',[.65 0.67 .25 .25])
box on % put box around new pair of axes

indexOfZoomedIn = (t < pi+1) & (t > pi - 1); 
plot(t(indexOfZoomedIn),modifiedSignal(indexOfZoomedIn)) % plot on new axes
axis tight;

• Adding a scroll panel, magnification box, and an overview tool to figure showing the image

% Display an image in a figure
hFig = figure(Toolbar="none",Menubar="none",Name="strawberri");
hIm = imshow('strawberries.jpg');

% Create a scroll panel to contain the image
hSP = imscrollpanel(hFig,hIm);
set(hSP,Units="normalized",Position=[0 .1 1 .9]);
	
% Add a Magnification Box and an Overview tool to the figure
hMagBox = immagbox(hFig, hIm);
boxPosition = get(hMagBox, 'Position');
set(hMagBox,Position=[0 0 boxPosition(3) boxPosition(4)]);

imoverview(hIm)

You can refer to the following documentations to know more about 'imscrollpanel', 'immagbox', and 'imoverview' functions:

• https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/images/ref/imscrollpanel.html
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/images/ref/immagbox.html
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/images/ref/imoverview.html

I hope it helps in resolving the issue.

Thanks.