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Change the MATLAB Desktop Language

MathWorks® offers MATLAB® translated into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

If the locale or display language settings on your system are set to Japanese, Korean, or Chinese, you can choose whether to display text in your system language or in English. MATLAB desktop items (such as dialog boxes, button names, and menu items) and error and warning messages appear in the language that you select.

To change the desktop language:

  1. On the Home tab, in the Environment section, click Preferences and select MATLAB > General.

  2. Select an option for the Desktop language preference.

    MATLAB General Preferences page focused on the Desktop language preference, which is set to English and circled in red

    If the preference is not visible:

    • On Windows® systems, check the display language setting. If the language that you want to select does not appear in the Windows display language list, you might need to install its language pack. For instructions on how to view the setting or install a language pack, refer to the documentation for your Windows system.

      The Windows display language, user locale, and system locale settings must all have the same value to avoid garbled text or incorrectly displayed characters. After changing the display language, log out and then back into your system for the changes to take effect. After changing the user locale or system locale settings, restart your system for the changes to take effect.

    • On macOS systems, check the user locale setting. If the locale that you want to select is not available, you might need to install its language pack. For instructions on how to change the user locale setting or install a language pack, refer to the documentation for your macOS system.

    • On Linux® systems, check the LANG environment variable. For instructions, refer to the documentation for your Linux system. If you see garbled text or incorrectly displayed characters, you also might need to install fonts for the selected locale.

  3. Restart MATLAB for the preference change to take effect.

Most desktop elements and apps use the language specified by the Desktop language preference. However, system dialog boxes, such as file selectors or color pickers, use the operating system display language.

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