msgboxFontSize

Change the fontsize and other text properties in a msgbox(), errordlg(), warndlg() etc.

Version 2.3 (3.32 KB)
462 Downloads
(4)
24 Jul 2019

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Editor's Note: This file was selected as MATLAB Central Pick of the Week

h = msgbox('Hello world (20 pt font)', 'Example');
msgboxFontSize(h, fontsize)
msgboxFontSize(h, fontsize, 'FontName', 'Consolas', 'Color', 'b')
msgboxFontSize(h, fontsize, 'ignorebuttons', true) % does not apply change to buttons.

The text properties in Matlab's msgbox(), errordlg(), warndlg(), etc cannot be directly
edited and the default 'fontsize' is quite small. This function gets around that problem
by searching for text within the msgbox handle, changes its fontsize, and then changes
the window size to fit the new fontsize. The position of the lower, left corner of
the msgbox will not change and the resize property is turned on. Additional name-value
text properties can be set except for 'units' (see examples).

Outputs include the handle to the text object and handles to all pushbuttons. The help section
shows how to get the handle to the icon in errordlg & warndlg as well.

List of text properties: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.graphics.primitive.text-properties.html

** Also see supersizeme() which contains an interactive GUI with a slider that allows you to scale the font size of all text within a figure or axes.
https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/67644-supersizeme

Cite As

Adam Danz (2026). msgboxFontSize (https://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/68460-msgboxfontsize), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

Acknowledgements

Inspired: Spur-Gear-Designer

Categories

Find more on Creating, Deleting, and Querying Graphics Objects in Help Center and MATLAB Answers

General Information

MATLAB Release Compatibility

  • Compatible with R2014a and later releases

Platform Compatibility

  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
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Version Published Release Notes
2.3

Now compatible with older releases (tested in r2014a, r2016a, r2017b, r2019a).
Replaces isvalid() with ishghandle() and dot notation with get/set.
2.2

Properties now applied to buttons though the buttons are not resized.

2.1.1

Just updated the description. No change to m file.

2.1

1) suppresses output from set() when inputs do not include property-value pairs.
2) includes button handle outputs.

2.0

Added the ability to specify all name-value text properties.

1.0.1

Simplified one line by replacing set() with dot notation.

1.0.0