Control Axes Layout

Position-Related Properties and Functions

There are several properties and functions for getting and setting the size and location of the axes. This table provides a summary.

Function or Property	Description
`OuterPosition` property	Use this property to query or change the outer boundary of the axes, including the title, labels, and a margin. To change the outer boundary, specify this property as a vector of the form `[left bottom width height]`. The `left` and `bottom` values indicate the distance from the lower-left corner of the figure to the lower-left corner of the outer boundary. The `width` and `height` values indicate the outer boundary dimensions.
`Position` property	Use this property to query or change the plotting area, which is typically bounded by the plot box. This area excludes the title, labels, and a margin around the title and labels. To change the size of the plotting area, specify this property as a vector of the form `[left bottom width height]`.
`tightPosition` function (since R2022b)	Use this function to query the plotting area, which is typically bounded by the plot box. The function often returns more accurate size and location information than the `Position` property does for axes that have constrained aspect ratios (such as square axes, polar axes, or axes that contain images).
`TightInset` property	Use this property to query the margins around the plot box for titles, tick labels, and axis labels. When you add axis labels and a title, MATLAB^® updates this property to accommodate the text. The size of the boundary defined by the `Position` and `TightInset` properties includes all the text labels.
`PositionConstraint` property (since R2020a)	Use this property to query or control whether the plotting area (inside the axes) or the outer boundary of the axes is preserved when adding titles or labels. To change which aspect of the axes is preserved, specify this property as `"innerposition"` or `"outerposition"`.
`Units` property	Use this property to query or change the units of the axes position values. The value must be set to `"normalized"` (the default) to enable automatic axes resizing.
`axis` function	Use this function to make adjustments to the axes limits or aspect ratio without having to perform calculations or set specific properties. For example: `axis image` — Change the size of the plot box to fit an image. `axis padded` — Add a margin of padding between your visualization (for example, a plotted line) and the plot box.

Position and Margin Boundaries

This figure shows a 2-D view of the axes areas defined by the OuterPosition values (red), the Position values (blue), and the Position expanded by the TightInset values (magenta).

2-D Cartesian axes with a red rectangle drawn around the area defined by the OuterPosition values, a blue rectangle drawn around the region defined by the Position values, and a magenta rectangle drawn around the area defined by the Position and TightInset values combined

This figure shows a 3-D view of the axes areas defined by the OuterPosition values (red), the Position values (blue), and the Position expanded by the TightInset values (magenta).

3-D Cartesian axes with a red rectangle drawn around the area defined by the OuterPosition values, a blue rectangle drawn around the region defined by the Position values, and a magenta rectangle drawn around the area defined by the Position and TightInset values combined

Position for Square or Constrained Aspect Ratios

Since R2022b

If your axes has a constrained aspect ratio, for example, if you are plotting an image, the Position property and tightPosition function return different results. Use either of them depending on the type of presentation you want to create.

For example, display an image. Use the axis function to preserve the aspect ratio of the image.

figure
C = imread("ngc6543a.jpg");
ax = axes;
image(C)
axis image

Get the position vector by calling the tightPosition function. Use the vector to draw a red rectangle around the image that is currently displayed in the axes.

tpos = tightPosition(ax);
annotation("rectangle",tpos,Color="red",LineWidth=2)

Axes showing an image with a red rectangle drawn around the area defined by the value returned by the tightPosition function

Get another position vector by querying the Position property of the axes. Use the vector to draw a blue rectangle that defines the plotting area for a similarly sized image, but with the default aspect ratio. The values in this vector might be useful for querying the overall image area when displaying a succession of multiple images that have different aspect ratios.

pos = ax.Position;
annotation("rectangle",pos,Color="blue",LineWidth=2)

Axes showing an image with a red rectangle drawn around the area defined by the value returned by the tightPosition function. A blue rectangle is drawn around the area defined by the Position property. The red rectangle coincides with the perimeter of the plot box. The area returned by the Position property has more space on the left and right sides of the image.

Controlling Automatic Resize Behavior

Some scenarios can trigger the Axes object to automatically resize. For example, interactively resizing the figure or adding a title or axis labels activates automatic resizing. Sometimes, the new axes size cannot satisfy both the Position and OuterPosition values, so the PositionConstraint property indicates which values to preserve.

Specify the PositionConstraint property as one of these values:

"outerposition" — Preserve the OuterPosition value. Use this option when you do not want the axes or any of the surrounding text to extend beyond a certain outer boundary. MATLAB adjusts the size of the inner area of the axes (where plots appear) to try to fit the contents within the outer boundary.
"innerposition" — Preserve the InnerPosition value. Use this option when you want the inner area of the axes to remain a certain size within the figure. This option sometimes causes text to run off the figure.

Before R2020a: Use the ActivePositionProperty and the values "outerposition" or "position".

Usually, leaving the PositionConstraint property set to "outerposition" is preferable. However, an overly long axes title or labels can shrink the inner area of your axes to a size that is hard to read. In such a case, keeping the inner axes to a specific size can be preferable, even if the surrounding text runs off the figure.

For example, create a figure with two axes and specify the same width and height for each axes position. Set the PositionConstraint property to "outerposition" for the upper axes and to "innerposition" for the lower axes. Notice that in the upper axes, the inner area shrinks to accommodate the text, but the text does not run outside the figure. In the lower axes, the size of the inner area is preserved, but some of the text is cut off.

figure; 
ax1 = axes("Position",[0.13 0.58 0.77 0.34]);
ax1.PositionConstraint = "outerposition";
plot(ax1,1:10)
title(ax1,"Preserve OuterPosition")
yticklabels(ax1,["My incredibly descriptive, excessively wordy, and overly long label",...
    "label 2","label 3"])

ax2 = axes("Position",[0.13 0.11 0.77 0.34]);
ax2.PositionConstraint = "innerposition";
plot(ax2,1:10)
title(ax2,"Preserve Position")
yticklabels(ax2,["My incredibly descriptive, excessively wordy, and overly long label",...
    "label 2","label 3"])

Two axes that are vertically stacked. The upper axes has a long y-axis label, and the plot box has shrunk to accommodate the long string of text. In the lower axes, the y-axis label is clipped to preserve the size of the plot box.

Stretch-to-Fill Behavior

By default, MATLAB stretches the axes to fill the available space. This “stretch-to-fill” behavior can cause some distortion. The axes might not exactly match the data aspect ratio, plot box aspect ratio, and camera-view angle values stored in the DataAspectRatio, PlotBoxAspectRatio, and CameraViewAngle properties. The “stretch-to-fill” behavior is enabled when the DataAspectRatioMode, PlotBoxAspectRatioMode, and CameraViewAngleMode properties of the Axes object are set to "auto".

If you specify the data aspect ratio, plot box aspect ratio, or camera-view angle, then the "stretch-to-fill" behavior is disabled. When the "stretch-to-fill" behavior is disabled, MATLAB makes the axes as large as possible within the available space and strictly adheres to the property values so that there is no distortion.

For example, this figure shows the same plot with and without the "stretch-to-fill" behavior enabled. In both versions, the data aspect ratio, plot box aspect ratio, and camera-view angle values are the same. However, in the left plot, the stretching introduces some distortion.

Stretch-to-fill enabled (some distortion)

Stretch-to-fill disabled (no distortion)

Plot of a circle stretched to fill the plot box, which is rectangular. Tthe circle displays as an oval.

Plot of a circle without any distortion