Light Properties

Color and Styling

`Color` — Color of light
`[1 1 1]` (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | `'r'` | `'g'` | `'b'` | ...

Color of light, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default RGB triplet of [1 1 1] corresponds to white.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7].
A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes '#FF8800', '#ff8800', '#F80', and '#f80' are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code
`'red'`	`'r'`	`[1 0 0]`	`'#FF0000'`
`'green'`	`'g'`	`[0 1 0]`	`'#00FF00'`
`'blue'`	`'b'`	`[0 0 1]`	`'#0000FF'`
`'cyan'`	`'c'`	`[0 1 1]`	`'#00FFFF'`
`'magenta'`	`'m'`	`[1 0 1]`	`'#FF00FF'`
`'yellow'`	`'y'`	`[1 1 0]`	`'#FFFF00'`
`'black'`	`'k'`	`[0 0 0]`	`'#000000'`
`'white'`	`'w'`	`[1 1 1]`	`'#FFFFFF'`

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB^® uses in many types of plots.

RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]`	`'#0072BD'`
`[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]`	`'#D95319'`
`[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]`	`'#EDB120'`
`[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]`	`'#7E2F8E'`
`[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]`	`'#77AC30'`
`[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]`	`'#4DBEEE'`
`[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]`	`'#A2142F'`

Example: 'green'

`Style` — Type of light source
`'infinite'` (default) | `'local'`

Type of light source, specified as one of these values:

'infinite' — Place the light at infinity. Use the Position property to specify the direction from which the light shines in parallel rays.
'local' — Place the light at the location specified by the Position property. The light is a point source that radiates from the location in all directions.

`Position` — Location of light source
`[1 0 1]` (default) | three-element vector of the form `[x y z]`

Location of light source, specified as a three-element vector of the form [x y z]. Define the vector elements in data units from the axes origin to the (x, y, z) coordinate. The actual location of the light depends on the value of the Style property.

Example: [-40 -4 140]

Position

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`Position` — Location of light source
`[1 0 1]` (default) | three-element vector of the form `[x y z]`

Location of light source, specified as a three-element vector of the form [x y z]. Define the vector elements in data units from the axes origin to the (x, y, z) coordinate. The actual location of the light depends on the value of the Style property.

Example: [-40 -4 140]

`Visible` — Visibility of light from light source
`'on'` (default) | on/off logical value

Visibility of light from light source, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Callbacks

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`CreateFcn` — Creation function
`''` (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

Function handle.
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.
Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callback Definition.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

`DeleteFcn` — Deletion function
`''` (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

Function handle.
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.
Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callback Definition.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Callback Execution Control

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`BeingDeleted` — Deletion status
on/off logical value

This property is read-only.

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

Parent/Child

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`Parent` — Parent
`Axes` object | `Group` object | `Transform` object

Parent, specified as an Axes, Group, or Transform object.

`Children` — Children
empty `GraphicsPlaceholder` array

The object has no children. You cannot set this property.

`HandleVisibility` — Visibility of object handle
`'on'` (default) | `'off'` | `'callback'`

Visibility of the object handle in the Children property of the parent, specified as one of these values:

'on' — Object handle is always visible.
'off' — Object handle is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes by another function. Set the HandleVisibility to 'off' to temporarily hide the handle during the execution of that function.
'callback' — Object handle is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command line, but permits callback functions to access it.

If the object is not listed in the Children property of the parent, then functions that obtain object handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying handle properties cannot return it. Examples of such functions include the get, findobj, gca, gcf, gco, newplot, cla, clf, and close functions.

Hidden object handles are still valid. Set the root ShowHiddenHandles property to 'on' to list all object handles regardless of their HandleVisibility property setting.

Identifiers

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`Type` — Type of graphics object
`'light'`

This property is read-only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'light'. Use this property to find all objects of a given type within a plotting hierarchy, for example, searching for the type using findobj.

`Tag` — Object identifier
`''` (default) | character vector | string scalar

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

`UserData` — User data
`[]` (default) | array

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.