axes0

SYNTAX:
axes0
axes0('PropertyName',propertyvalue,...)
h = axes0(...);
PROPERTIES: (Name-value pairs)
'origin' - Position of the origin label
'bottomleft'(default)|'topleft'|'topright'|'bottomright'
'southwest'|'northwest'|'northeast'|'southeast'|'none'
'XTickLabelPos' - Position of the x-axis tick labels with respect to the axis

'bottom'(default)|'top'
'YTickLabelPos' - Position of the y-axis tick labels with respect to the axis
'left'(default)|'right'
'XLabelPos' - Position of the x-axis label with respect to the axis
'topright (default)'|'bottomright'|'topleft'|'bottomleft'
'firstquad'|'secondquad'|'thirdquad'|'fourthquad'
'left'|'right'
'YLabelPos' - Position of the y-axis label with respect to the axis
'topright (default)'|'bottomright'|'topleft'|'bottomleft'
'firstquad'|'secondquad'|'thirdquad'|'fourthquad'
'top'|'bottom'
'ticks' - Specify whether to plot the tick markers
'on'(default)|'off'|logical
Legacy properties (still work but have been replaced):
'xlabels' - Position of the x-axis labels with respect to the axis
'bottom'(default)|'top'
'ylabels' - Position of the y-axis labels with respect to the axis
'left'(default)|'right'
If the following is called:
h = axes0('PropertyName',propertyvalue,...)
The function returns handles in the structure h. The following fields are returned:
xt = handle of the x tick labels
yt = handle of the y tick labels
o = handle of the origin label
xl = handle of the x axis label
yl = handle of the y axis label
All handles are text objects and any text object properties can
be modified using set(h.field,'PropertyName',propertyvalue) after
axes0 has been called.

EXAMPLES:
Example 1 - Default settings:

figure;
x = linspace(-2,2,101);
plot(x,2*x.^3-3*x+1);
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y','Rotation',0)

axes0

Example 2 - Some Name-Value pairs for better aesthetics:

figure;
plot(x, x.^2-2*x-1);
xlabel('t')
ylabel('f(t)','Rotation',0)
axes0('origin','topright','xticklabelpos','top','yticklabelpos','right',...
'xlabelpos','fourthquad','ylabelpos','secondquad');

Example 3 - Modify labels using text object properties:

figure
x = linspace(-2,2,101);
plot(x,2*x.^3-3*x+1);
h = axes0;
set(h.xt,'FontSize',15,'color','b')
set(h.o,'FontSize',15,'color','r','fontweight','bold')

Example 4 - axes0 inherits most properties of the original axis

figure;
x = linspace(-1,2,101);

plot(x,x)
xlabel('x','fontsize',16)
ylabel('$y(x)$','Rotation',0,'fontsize',19,'color','b','interpreter','latex')
set(gca,'fontsize',11,'fontweight','bold','fontname','times','fontangle','italic')

axes0

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The following post on Stack Overflow inspired this function:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/2945107/4941405

Note: As mentioned in the comments, most of the functionality of axes0 was built directly into the axis object in MATLAB 2015b. See: http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_plots/display-axis-lines-through-origin.html

Users of earlier versions of MATLAB (or users who want a quick way to label the origin) may find the present function useful