How can I plot professional quality graphs in matlab? [closed] - matlab

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The default graphs produced from matlab are very different from what I see in books. For example the image below looks visually pleasing. Can I change default settings of matlab to mimic this graphing style?

Answer 1

This question will refrain from lecturing the OP on best practices for graphics and simply attempt to answer the question as asked. I personally concur with a few of the concerns raised but leave it to the OP to seek out resources on data visualization and graphical aesthetics. (For the record, I'm not a fan of the chart.)
Resources:
The MATLAB Plot Gallery depicts a range of plots and adjustments that may help you. For high quality, professional looking graphs, scroll down to the Advanced Plots to see source code and the resulting figures.
Graphical overview of the Types of MATLAB Plots available.
You can also make a basic plot then use MATLAB's Plot Editor to customize the properties through the graphical interface. When done, click File-->Generate Code and you'll see one possible way to code that graph. This is helpful when you know how to do something through the interface but want to script it in the future.
Examples with code for Publication Quality Plots with Matlab
Mathworks blog on Making Pretty Graphs
Another example on Creating high-quality graphics in MATLAB for papers and presentations
I realize some of these links may eventually expire. Please feel free to comment if they do
Example:
I'm no expert. I learned everything in this answer from looking at the documentation, plot source code, and playing with the properties for the various plot components.
% Functions of Interest % MATLAB 2018a
fh=#(x) a + a*sin(b*x) + 1-exp(-b*x);
gh=#(x) a + (a/b)*cos(c*x);
a = 20;
b = .3;
c = .2;
% Plot
X = (0:.01:25)';
figure, hold on
p(1) = plot(X,fh(X),'r-','DisplayName','Excitation')
p(2) = plot(X,gh(X),'b-','DisplayName','Recovery')
% legend('show') % Optional legend (omitted here since we're adding text)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
title('Particle Displacement')
% Options
ha = gca;
box on
grid on
ylim([-80 100])
set(ha,'GridLineStyle','--') % use ':' for dots
t(1) = text(3.5,80,'excitation')
t(2) = text(12,20,'recovery')
for k = 1:2
p(k).LineWidth = 2.2;
t(k).FontWeight = 'bold';
t(k).FontSize = 12;
t(k).FontName = 'Arial';
end

Answer 2

Create a function which takes a matrix of data where each row represents a signal that you want to plot.
Define some styles you want to use for plotting. In your example plot, the first two would be 'bo' and 'rx'. Just iterate over your rows and plot each row with a different style followed by the command "hold on;"
function fancyplot(xaxis, matrix)
figure;
style = {'bo', 'rx', 'k.'}; # and so on
for r = 1:size(matrix, 1)
plot(xaxis, matrix(r,:), style{r});
hold on;
end
end
Write another script which you execute right after you plot or add it to the function above. In this script use the the following methods to control the limits of the axis
xlim
ylim
Set them to the min/max values of the data you plotted.
To add text to your plots use the Text command.
If you want to use these plots in publications be mindful of the fact that most publications are black and white and your graphs should be distinguishable event if they are not colored (I doubt the ones above would be). I always believed doing all formatting in code is a good idea without the manual tinkering around. Otherwise you might figure out that you have to update all 8 plots in your publication at 4 am shortly before you need to submit your paper. If you run some simulations and all formatting is in code you can simply execute your formatting scripts and save the plots automatically how to save a picture from code, preferably to the eps format.