(Originally posted on Doug's MATLAB Video Tutorials blog.)

The best way to modify a MATLAB figure is to just modify the code that generated it. I prefer this because it is better to be able to regenerate a figure from code if you want to keep modifying it later, and your workflow is visible for later inspection. Sometimes you do not have the original code like this User on MATLAB Answers. I show a few techniques for modifying an existing figure when you do not have the original code that made it.