I'm using subplot which contains three different plots. Each plot has its own labels and title.
The problem is that I have to maximize the plot when I save it. Otherwise, the texts will overlap each other.
When I maximize it, the subplot's label text will appear little blurry in the image, even if I use ESP format or any vector format.
How can I resolve this issue?
For the title overlap issues, you can produce multiple lines of title text use a cell array of strings as the input parameter of title():
title_text = {'first line', 'second line', 'third line'};
title(title_text);
And it works for label text too.
In addition to Da Kuang's answer, if you would like to keep your titles and labels on the same line, you could change the font size
a = axes;
t = title('My Really Long Title');
l = xlabel('My Really Long x label')
set(t, 'FontSize', 8)
set(l, 'FontSize', 8)
I'm not sure why your labels are blurry, but I can help with the overlap.
I never use subplot when I want to save images (eg. for a paper). What I do instead is create each axes individually, which allows a lot more control over each of them.
Below is a rather general example, which illustrates how to generate an arbitrary grid of axes with much finer control over their placement than subplot allows. Of course, with only 3 axes, you don't really need the loop, but I'm sure you can adapt this to fit your needs.
% first create the figure
figPos = [200 200 800 500];
figure('Color', 'w', 'Position', figPos)
% next, determine how much padding you want on each side of the axes, and in
% between axes. I usually play around with these, and the figure size until
% the layout looks correct.
leftPadding = 50/figPos(3); % the space at the left of the figure
rightPadding = 25/figPos(3); % the space at the right of the figure
horizPadding = 80/figPos(3); % the space between axes (horizontally)
topPadding = 30/figPos(4); % the space at the top of the figure
bottomPadding = 50/figPos(4); % the space at the bottom of the figure
vertPadding = 120/figPos(4); % the space between axes (vertically)
% set up the grid size
nHorizAxes = 2;
nVertAxes = 3;
% figure out how big each axes should be
horizPlotSpace = 1-leftPadding-rightPadding-(nHorizAxes-1)*horizPadding;
vertPlotSpace = 1-topPadding-bottomPadding-(nVertAxes-1)*vertPadding;
width = horizPlotSpace/nHorizAxes;
height = vertPlotSpace/nVertAxes;
myAxes = zeros(nVertAxes, nHorizAxes);
% create some sample data to plot for illustrative purposes
x = linspace(0, 2*pi);
y = sin(x);
for iRow = 1:nVertAxes
for iCol = 1:nHorizAxes
% calculate the position
left = leftPadding+(iCol-1)*(width+horizPadding);
bottom = bottomPadding+(iRow-1)*(height+vertPadding);
position = [left bottom width height];
myAxes(iRow, iCol) = axes('Position', position);
plot(x, y)
xlabel('Test Label')
ylabel('Test Label')
title(sprintf('axes(%d, %d)', iRow, iCol))
end
end
Those answers should help but here are some other things to try, depending on the cause of the overlapping text:
Change the figure's size so there's room for the text. For example:
set(gcf, 'PaperSize', [5 7])
Change the size of the subplots.
s = get(gca, 'Position');
set(gca, 'Position', [s(1), s(2), s(3), s(4) * 0.5])
MATLAB (R2021b) appears to stop updating the size of subplots after the axes function is used to set the current axes. The following code causes the title to be cut off.
sp1 = subplot(2, 1, 1);
sp2 = subplot(2, 1, 2);
axes(sp1) % Set the current axes to the first subplot.
title(sprintf('Hello\nCruel\nWorld'))
On the other hand, if title is called immediately after the first subplot is opened, without using axes, then the title has sufficient space to be completely visible.
sp1 = subplot(2, 1, 1);
title(sprintf('Hello\nCruel\nWorld'))
sp2 = subplot(2, 1, 2);
As a workaround, if you need to set the values for a prior subplot, you can simply pass sp1 as the first argument of the desired function.
sp1 = subplot(2, 1, 1);
sp2 = subplot(2, 1, 2);
title(sp1, sprintf('Hello\nCruel\nWorld'))
Simple you can use below function :
plt.tight_layout()
description: The tight_layout() function in pyplot module of matplotlib library is used to automatically adjust subplot parameters to give specified padding.
note : always use this function before plt.show() function.
Related
I am trying to create a plot in Octave (using v4.4.1 on Windows) using plotyy and putting the legend outside the plot (because the data covers all the usable space inside the graph). The following MVCE should reproduce the issue fairly well:
% Generate some random data to reproduce the issue
data = rand(1000,10);
data(:,1:8) = data(:,1:8)-0.5;
data(:,9:10) = data(:,9:10)+30;
timedate = linspace(737310,737313,size(data,1));
data_labels={'1';'2';'3';'4';'5';'6';'7';'8';'9';'10'};
% Plot the data
figure('Name','MVCE','Position',[300 200 1000 600])
[ax,h1,h2] = plotyy(timedate,data(:,1:8),timedate,data(:,9:10));
set(h2,'Visible','on');
datetick(ax(1),'x','HH:MM:SS')
datetick(ax(2),'x','HH:MM:SS')
ylim(ax(1),[-1 1])
ylim(ax(2),[20 50])
xlabel('Date & time')
ylabel(ax(1),'Something')
ylabel(ax(2),'Something else')
title('plotyy graph with legend problem')
[hl,hlo] = legend([h1;h2],data_labels,'location','eastoutside');
grid on
This the output of the code using the gnuplot graphics toolkit:
As you can see, the legend does not go outside the plot, and the second y axis is not visible (it looks like part of the plot is actually truncated).
I have tried using the qt and fltk graphics toolkits, which give issues of their own:
With qt graphics toolkit
With fltk graphics toolkit
Can anoybody suggest a fix or at least workaround? Does the same issue also happen in MATLAB or is it Octave-specific?
EDIT
Using the suggestion in Tasos' answer, I managed to almost make it work with gnuplot:
% Plot the data
figure('Name','MVCE','Position',[300 200 1000 600])
[ax,h1,h2] = plotyy(timedate,data(:,1:8),timedate,data(:,9:10));
set(h2,'Visible','on');
datetick(ax(1),'x','HH:MM:SS')
datetick(ax(2),'x','HH:MM:SS')
ylim(ax(1),[-1 1])
ylim(ax(2),[20 50])
ax1Pos = get(ax(1), 'position');
ax2Pos = get(ax(2), 'position');
ax1Pos(3) = ax1Pos(3) * 0.73;
ax2Pos(3) = ax2Pos(3) * 0.73;
set(ax(1), 'position', ax2Pos);
set(ax(2), 'position', ax2Pos);
xlabel('Date & time')
ylabel(ax(1),'Something')
ylabel(ax(2),'Something else')
title('plotyy graph with legend problem')
[hl,hlo] = legend([h1;h2],data_labels,'location','eastoutside');
pos = get(hl,'Position');
pos(1) = 0.9;
set(hl,'Position',pos)
grid on
Which produces:
Apart from the fact that the legend overlays with the second y axis label (which it doesn't on my screen, only when printing to jpg), the problem is that Octave appears to plot two legends on top of each other for some reason: one with the first set of data attached to the first set of axes, and one with the complete set of data, for both axes right on top of the first legend. This is obviously wrong, and trying to set the Visible property of hl to off deletes both legends, not just the one.
UPDATED: deals with both legend placement and OpenGL precision affecting graph.
Regarding the problem of the legend not appearing exactly in the position you want it to, you can manually adjust the position of all axes involved in a figure, to place them exactly where you want.
Regarding the problem of OpenGL being unable to deal with the precision involved when adding small numbers to a large number, plot the graph with only the small numbers involved, and then simply adjust the xticklabels to correspond to the numbers you desire.
Full code below:
% Generate some random data to reproduce the issue
data = rand(1000,10);
data(:,1:8) = data(:,1:8)-0.5;
data(:,9:10) = data(:,9:10)+30;
t_offset = 737310;
timedate = linspace(0,3,size(data,1));
data_labels={'1';'2';'3';'4';'5';'6';'7';'8';'9';'10'};
% Plot the data
figure('Name','MVCE','Position',[300 200 1000 600])
[ax,h1,h2] = plotyy(timedate,data(:,1:8),timedate,data(:,9:10));
set(h2,'Visible','on');
ylim(ax(1),[-1 1])
ylim(ax(2),[20 50])
ylabel(ax(1),'Something')
ylabel(ax(2),'Something else')
title('plotyy graph with legend problem')
[hl,hlo] = legend([h1;h2],data_labels,'location','eastoutside');
set(hl, 'position', get(hl, 'position') .* [0.975, 1, 0.975, 1] )
grid on
ax1Pos = get(ax(1), 'position'); ax2Pos = get(ax(2), 'position');
ax1Pos(3) = ax1Pos(3) * 0.95; ax2Pos(3) = ax2Pos(3) * 0.95;
set(ax(1), 'position', ax2Pos); set(ax(2), 'position', ax2Pos);
XTicks = get(ax(1), 'xtick');
set(ax(1), 'xticklabel', datestr(XTicks + t_offset, 'HH:MM:SS'))
xlabel('Date & time')
set(ax(2), 'xtick', []);
Output:
Please see the following code which creates a 2 by 2 subplot with some plots:
x = linspace(0,2*pi);
y = sin(x);
hfig = figure('Position',[1317 474 760 729]);
subplot(2,2,1)
plot(x,y)
ylabel('plot1');
subplot(2,2,2)
plot(x,y.^2)
ylabel('plot2');
subplot(2,2,3)
plot(x,y.^3)
ylabel('plot3');
subplot(2,2,4)
plot(x,abs(y))
ylabel('plot4');
in each one, I have added labels by hand in Tools: Edit plot (a) (b) (c) (d) producing this figure:
The problem is, if I resize the plot they are no longer aligned with the ylabel text:
Is there a way to add these labels programmatically and have them automatically align to the ylabel text? I am surprised MATLAB does not have something like this built in already.
Thanks
This is not something that is easy to do without attaching a listener to the figure resize event (see example), and doing some computations related to aspect ratios.
It's not entirely clear what sort of objects your labels are (text or annotation), so I'll just show how to do this programmatically using the text command, which creates labels in axes coordinates (as opposed to figure coordinates). This doesn't solve the problem entirely, but it looks better, possibly to an acceptable degree:
function q56624258
x = linspace(0,2*pi);
y = sin(x);
hF = figure('Position',[-1500 174 760 729]);
%% Create plots
[hAx,hYL] = deal(gobjects(4,1));
for ind1 = 1:3
hAx(ind1) = subplot(2,2,ind1, 'Parent' , hF);
plot(hAx(ind1), x,y.^ind1);
hYL(ind1) = ylabel("plot" + ind1);
end
hAx(4) = subplot(2,2,4);
plot(hAx(4), x,abs(y));
hYL(4) = ylabel('plot4');
%% Add texts (in data coordinates; x-position is copied from the y-label)
for ind1 = 1:4
text(hAx(ind1), hYL(ind1).Position(1), 1.1, ['(' char('a'+ind1-1) ')'], ...
'HorizontalAlignment', 'center');
end
Note several modifications to your code:
The handles returned by some functions that create graphical elements are now stored (mainly: hAx, hYL).
All functions that create graphical elements (subplot, plot, ylabel) now have the target (i.e. parent or container) specified.
I changed the 'Position' of the figure so that it works in my setup (you might want to change it back).
I need an additional text in the legend that is not related with graphical data together with the legend captions.
Something like this (it was made in OriginLab):
Following to this link Add custom legend without any relation to the graph
I can add some text using plot(NaN,NaN,'display','add info here2', 'linestyle', 'none'). But there is an indent in this text:
How to avoid this indent? And is there a more elegant method to add the text that is not associated with the legend together with the legend captions?
The legend function will return as its second output argument handles for all of the components that make up the symbols and text in the legend. You can therefore plot "dummy" lines as placeholders in the legend, reorder the handles when creating the legend to put the text where you want it, and modify the legend objects accordingly. Here's an example:
x = linspace(0, 2*pi, 100);
hl = plot(x, [sin(x); cos(x); tan(x); nan(size(x))].'); % Add a line of NaNs
axis([0 2*pi -4 4]);
[~, objH] = legend(hl([1 2 4 3]), 'sin', 'cos', 'junk', 'tan'); % Reorder handles
set(findobj(objH, 'Tag', 'junk'), 'Vis', 'off'); % Make "junk" lines invisible
pos = get(objH(3), 'Pos'); % Get text box position
set(objH(3), 'Pos', [0.1 pos(2:3)], 'String', 'also...'); % Stretch box and change text
You can use annotations. It's not perfect, but with few adjustments you'll get what you want. Here's an example:
% somthing to plot:
x = [0:0.1:5; 5:0.1:10].';
y = sin(x);
% plot the real data:
plot(x,y);
hold on
% make some space in the legend:
Spacing_lines = 3;
h = plot(nan(size(x,1),Spacing_lines));
hold off
set(h,{'Color'},{'w'}); % clear the dummy lines
% place the legend:
hl = legend([{'lable1','lable2'} repmat({''},1,Spacing_lines)]);
% add your text:
annotation('textbox',hl.Position,'String',{'Some info';'in 2 lines'},...
'VerticalAlignment','Bottom','Edgecolor','none');
And from this you get:
You can just add any text to any point of plot in this way:
txt1 = 'some information';
text(x1,y1,txt1)
where x1, y1 - coordinates.
By the way function text function has a lot of different properties (colors, font size, alignment etc.).
I think the easiest way is to just create some dummy function, plot it but set the color="none" - that way it will only show up in the legend (if that is where you wanted it).
I want to shift the x ticks labels downwards in this figure:
I'm not sure how to do this?
This is the script I'm using:
y=[0.5093 0.8526 0.9171];
x=[0 1600 1100];
hand =plot(y, 'ob-');
set(gca, 'XTick',1:3, 'XTickLabel',{'no interference' '1600' '1100'})
set(hand, 'LineWidth', 4);
set(hand, 'MarkerSize', 30);
set(findobj('type','text'),'FontSize',25);
set(gca,'FontSize',25);
set(findobj('type','axes'),'FontSize',25);
h=get(gca,'Title');
set(h,'FontSize',20);
Following the example from this mathworks solution, you can use the text function to add labels in any position you wish.
Increase the value of delta for a larger gap between x tick labels and x axis.
EDIT: Added custom control of yticks: the value of stp changes the step between each tick. Obviously a more general solution would identify the end-points of the tick range automatically as well.
figure(1), clf
% set data as your example
y=[0.5093 0.8526 0.9171];
x=[0 1600 1100];
Xt=1:length(x);
hand =plot(y, 'ob-');
set(gca, 'XTick',Xt);
stp=0.05;
Yt=0.5:stp:0.95;
set(gca, 'ytick', Yt)
% Reduce the size of the axis so that all the labels fit in the figure.
pos = get(gca,'Position');
set(gca,'Position',[pos(1), .2, pos(3) .7])
ax = axis; % Current axis limits
axis(axis); % Set the axis limit modes (e.g. XLimMode) to manual
Yl = ax(3:4); % Y-axis limits
Xl = ax(1:2);
% Place the text labels -- the value of delta modifies how far the labels
% are from the axis.
delta=0.1;
t = text(Xt, Yl(1)*ones(1,length(x))-delta, {'no interference' '1600' '1100'});
%set(t, 'HorizontalAlignment','left','VerticalAlignment','top')
set(t, 'HorizontalAlignment','center','VerticalAlignment','middle')
% Remove the default labels
set(gca,'XTickLabel','')
% and continue with your other settings as required
set(hand, 'LineWidth', 4);
set(hand, 'MarkerSize', 30);
set(findobj('type','text'),'FontSize',25);
set(gca,'FontSize',25);
set(findobj('type','axes'),'FontSize',25);
h=get(gca,'Title');
set(h,'FontSize',20);
The text function has lots of options that you can configure.
I think what most people want is something that works in 2-3 lines of code, nevermind-ing a quick&dirty approach.
This is undocumented (credits go to here) but just works:
% adjust ticklabels away from axes
a=gca;
a.XRuler.TickLabelGapOffset = 8;
a.YRuler.TickLabelGapOffset = 8;
tested with Matlab 2019a
In Matlab I have a GUI that analyses and plots data on to a plot in my main figure of the GUI. I often have to plot a lot of different data sets though with it and have two main problems:
I cannot set a fixed size area for the legend to be constructed in
I cannot work out how to make the legend text and box scale when the GUI is full screened
One solution I was thinking about is a scroll bar in the legend, is this possible? Hopefully the image below highlights the problem:
Here is a solution that will scale the legend with whatever scaling factor you desire:
close all;
% Generate data
N = 10;
T = 10;
x = rand(T, N);
% How much to scale by
xLegScale = 0.5;
yLegScale = 0.5;
% Plot some data
labels = arrayfun(#(n){sprintf('Legend Entry for Line %i', n)}, 1:N);
plot(x, 'LineWidth', 2);
hLeg = legend(labels);
% Figure out new legend width / height, including a little fudge
legPos = get(hLeg, 'Position');
widthFudgeFactor = 0.1;
legPosNew = legPos;
legPosNew(3:4) = legPosNew(3:4) .* [xLegScale yLegScale];
legPosNew(3) = legPosNew(3) * (1 + widthFudgeFactor);
% Create a new axes that matches the legend axes and copy all legend
% children to it, then delete the legend
axNew = axes('Parent', gcf);
xlim(axNew, get(hLeg, 'XLim'));
ylim(axNew, get(hLeg, 'YLim'));
box(axNew, 'on');
set(axNew, 'Position', legPosNew);
set(axNew, 'XTick', [], 'YTick', []);
copyobj(get(hLeg, 'Children'), axNew)
delete(hLeg);
hLeg = axNew;
% Find text objects inside legend
hLegTexts = findobj('Parent', hLeg, 'Type', 'text');
% Scale font size
legTextFontSize = get(hLegTexts, 'FontSize');
fszScale = mean([xLegScale yLegScale]);
legTextFontSizeNew = cellfun(#(x){fszScale * x}, legTextFontSize);
arrayfun(#(h, fontSize)set(h, 'FontSize', fontSize{:}), hLegTexts, legTextFontSizeNew);
This code creates a new axes that is a facsimile of the original legend axes and does all the position setting work on that. The reason is that the legend object doesn't like being resized smaller than it thinks it should be (presumably there is some code doing this when it resizes, but there is no ResizeFcn property for axes objects, so I can't see a way to disable this functionality aside from making a copy of the axes).
The only thing inside the axes you actually need to scale is the font size: the rest will be scaled automatically due to the use of normalized units.
If this kind of scaling solution doesn't tickle your fancy, then you could do something similar (copy the legend axes children) but add a scrollbar to the new axes (and set its units to something other than normalized so that it doesn't scale its contents when you resize it). You might draw some inspiration for how to do the scrolling from this question.