Downloaded from https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-export-fig We had to patch export_fig.m to force export_fig to use the renderers painter, otherwise it is just way to slow (opengl is the default if we have patches) Line 585: if ~options.renderer if hasTransparency || hasPatches % This is *MUCH* slower, but more accurate for patches and transparent annotations (issue #39) renderer = '-opengl'; else renderer = '-painters'; end end change to painters all the time