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October 16th, 2007

MATLAB Basics: Setting a background image for a GUI

I recently got a question in my inbox asking how to set the background image for a GUI. This is done by creating an axes in the GUI and putting an image in it. Any UICONTROLs that you put on the GUI will appear over the image.

See this video for the details:

Find the files here.

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By Doug Hull

15:28 UTC | Posted in GUI or GUIDE, MATLAB Basics, Video | Permalink | 15 Comments »

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15 Responses to “MATLAB Basics: Setting a background image for a GUI”

Craig Miller replied on October 17th, 2007 at 13:40 UTC :

Nifty idea. Is there a way to do this without using imshow from the Image Processing Toolbox, with just ‘plain’ Matlab?

Thanks,
Craig
Doug replied on October 30th, 2007 at 08:36 UTC :

With a little work, IMAGE should do fine here also. It is just that IMSHOW, from the image processing toolbox, takes care of many book keeping type tasks for you so your image always looks great.

Doug
Vaibhav Bedia replied on January 12th, 2008 at 10:52 UTC :

I am having some problems with the background image.Things work fine once but if i close MATLAB and start the GUI again the axes loses its TAG and hence the axes becomes invisible.I need to rename it manually everytime.Is there a way to solve this?
xiaolan replied on January 18th, 2008 at 01:11 UTC :

May i know how to put an image on a button? i don’t want any wordings on the button, i just want to have image on it.

Thanks.
Doug replied on January 21st, 2008 at 10:21 UTC :

xiaolan,

You can put an image in a button like this:

a = uicontrol(‘style’,'pushbutton’)
set(a,’cdata’,rand(10,10,3))

I set he cdata to a random RGB matrix, but you can use whatever you like.

Doug
tasha replied on October 28th, 2008 at 04:43 UTC :

i really need help on my MATLAB GUI program. can anyone help me? please email me at intan_tassya@yahoo.com if you’re wiling to help me.

i’ve create a simple GUI interface. im using MATLAB V.7.2.. but i don’t even know how to input the function . for example, total_area= area1+area2 when we press the ‘calculate’ button. can anyone show me 1 clear example on this matter, i need to complete my project within 1 week starting from today…i’ve read all your comments etc, but i couldnt understand it.. besides, im importing the jpeg image into the axes which i labelled as ‘pic1′…when i generate, the picture will be displayed, but when i click the ‘next’ button, and trying to go back to the previous interface, the image gone. i dont understand why…please somebody, i really need help on MATLAB GUI…please email me..thank you very much :(
Doug replied on October 29th, 2008 at 14:42 UTC :

Tasha,

I would recommend this video:

http://blogs.mathworks.com/pick/2008/05/13/accessing-data-from-one-widget-to-another-in-guide/

It will show you how to get data from one uicontrol (like an editbox) and use it as input in the callback of another.

I am sorry, but I am not too clear on your second question. Please contact support@mathworks.com with a more detailed question.

Doug
Jack replied on January 14th, 2010 at 17:56 UTC :

Yes I have the same problem with Vaibhav Bedia. After using this method, the TAG of the axes becomes empty and if I modify any parts of the gui window, the image disappear unless I manually reset the TAG and callback function. Looking for a solution.
Rounak replied on April 4th, 2011 at 11:10 UTC :

Answer to ur probelm jack…

trz this piece of code
axes(hObject)
hold on;
image(imread(‘stalkswt.jpg’))
set(gca , ‘XTick’ , [ ]);
set(gca , ‘YTick’ , [ ]);
set(gca , ‘ZTick’ , [ ]);

the axes property after executing clears off the properties and so u need to use ‘hold’
rimiS replied on November 27th, 2011 at 18:07 UTC :

hi doug,

when i created a background using your tutorial, it worked very well. But when i add a panel with a different color over the background, i can only see the title of the panel.

is there any way i can make the entire body of the panel visible?
AeroGuy replied on December 20th, 2011 at 04:52 UTC :

I created a GUI with an axis and inserted a picture, which worked fine. But when I inserted buttons, it stopped showing the picture, and I couldn’t open the callback because “Tag must be a legal variable name for GUIDE to append a callback function prototype to the application M-file.”
AeroGuy replied on December 20th, 2011 at 12:07 UTC :

NVM, got that sorted.

How do I get the picture to change when I push a button, select from a menu or click on the screen?

I’m trying to write a music composition program.
AeroGuy replied on December 20th, 2011 at 12:42 UTC :

Let me ask this another way:

If I were to insert a switch under to show a picture according to which button is pushed, how would I do what?

Or what handle is being set/changed by the line , if I were to insert code for each button?

Thanks
AeroGuy replied on December 20th, 2011 at 12:46 UTC :

Let me ask this another way:

If I were to insert a switch under function axes1_CreateFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles) show a picture according to which button is pushed, how would I do what?

Or what handle is being set/changed by the line axes(hObject), if I were to insert code for each button?

Thanks

EDIT:

This website is really hard to work with. Sorry for double post.
Narendra Singh replied on February 2nd, 2012 at 03:22 UTC :

I have created a code and want to add an image at the back. But doing that is creating problems in showing outputs of in existing axes i.e image is coming at the back but hiding another axes. what should i do?