So, since installing Matlab 2011b on my Ubuntu 11.04, the fonts in my figures have been all terrible. More precisely, I haven’t been able to change their sizes (or styles).

Happily, nice folks at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1762805 have informed the rest of us that we need to install some missing fonts, more precisely by running

sudo apt-get install xfonts-75dpi

sudo apt-get install xfonts-100dpi

and relogging ubuntu.

And then things just work =)

Thank you internet