print

Export a figure to an image or document file.

📝Syntax

print(filename)
print(filename, formatoption)
print(fig, filename)
print(fig, filename, formatoption)
print(fig, filename, formatoption, resolution)

📥Input Arguments

Parameter	Description
fig	Figure graphics object. When omitted, the current figure returned by gcf() is used.
filename	Character vector or string scalar: destination filename.
formatoption	Character vector or string scalar: a -d device option (for example '-dpng', '-dpdf', '-dsvg'). When omitted, the format is inferred from the filename extension.
resolution	Character vector or string scalar: a -r resolution option (for example '-r150'). Accepted for compatibility; the export follows the figure size.

📄Description

print exports a figure to an image or document file. It is a thin wrapper over saveas: the -d device option selects the output format and the figure is exported through the shared desktop, web and headless renderer.

When no -d device is given, the format is inferred from the filename extension, and PNG is used when the filename has no extension. A -r resolution option is accepted for compatibility but does not resample the output.

The device option maps to the same format registry as saveas:

Device option	Format	Extension
-dpng	Portable Network Graphics	.png
-djpeg, -djpg	JPEG	.jpg
-dtiff, -dtiffn, -dtif	TIFF	.tif
-dbmp	Bitmap	.bmp
-dgif	Graphics Interchange Format	.gif
-dwebp	WebP	.webp
-dsvg	Scalable Vector Graphics	.svg
-dpdf	Portable Document Format	.pdf

Background: as with saveas, while the figure InvertHardcopy property is 'on' (the default), the exported background is white whatever the on-screen figure Color.

💡Examples

Export the current figure to PNG, PDF and SVG.

f = figure('Visible', 'off');
plot(1:10, (1:10) .^ 2);
title('Quadratic data');
print(f, [tempname(), '.png'], '-dpng');
print(f, [tempname(), '.pdf'], '-dpdf');
print(f, [tempname(), '.svg'], '-dsvg', '-r150');
close(f);

Infer the format from the filename extension.

f = figure('Visible', 'off');
plot(1:5);
pngfile = [tempname(), '.png'];
print(pngfile);
assert(isfile(pngfile));
close(f);

🔗See Also

saveas savefig gcf

🕔Version History

Version	Description
2.0.0	initial version

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