set(0, 'DefaultAxesFontName', 'Arial');
set(0, 'DefaultTextFontName', 'Arial');
You can add this to your startup.m, but it is a little dangerous. I would suggest limiting the effects to a single figure at a time.
figure;
set(gcf, 'DefaultAxesFontName', 'Arial');
set(gcf, 'DefaultTextFontName', 'Arial');
You could create your own function
function h = arialfigure
h = figure;
set(h, 'DefaultAxesFontName', 'Arial');
set(h, 'DefaultTextFontName', 'Arial');
end
