Perfect subplot in Matlab

http://p-martineau.com/perfect-subplot-in-matlab/

In my field, it is often very useful to include many panels in one single figure. Matlab offers by default the subplot function but it is not easily customizable and often leaves me unsatisfied. For high quality publishable figures, I wrote the function subplot_pos :

function [ positions ] = subplot_pos(plotwidth,plotheight,leftmargin,rightmargin,bottommargin,topmargin,nbx,nby,spacex,spacey)
 
    subxsize=(plotwidth-leftmargin-rightmargin-spacex*(nbx-1.0))/nbx;
    subysize=(plotheight-topmargin-bottommargin-spacey*(nby-1.0))/nby;
 
    for i=1:nbx
       for j=1:nby
 
           xfirst=leftmargin+(i-1.0)*(subxsize+spacex);
           yfirst=bottommargin+(j-1.0)*(subysize+spacey);
 
           positions{i,j}=[xfirst/plotwidth yfirst/plotheight subxsize/plotwidth subysize/plotheight];
 
       end
    end
end

　　

This function takes the size of the panels and the figure in centimeters as parameters and outputs a cell containing axes positions. The resulting figure has the exact specified dimensions. The following code shows how to use this Matlab sub-plotting function :

%parameters for figure and panel size
plotheight=20;
plotwidth=16;
subplotsx=3;
subplotsy=5;   
leftedge=1.2;
rightedge=0.4;   
topedge=1;
bottomedge=1.5;
spacex=0.2;
spacey=0.2;
fontsize=5;    
sub_pos=subplot_pos(plotwidth,plotheight,leftedge,rightedge,bottomedge,topedge,subplotsx,subplotsy,spacex,spacey);
 
%setting the Matlab figure
f=figure('visible','on')
clf(f);
set(gcf, 'PaperUnits', 'centimeters');
set(gcf, 'PaperSize', [plotwidth plotheight]);
set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual');
set(gcf, 'PaperPosition', [0 0 plotwidth plotheight]);
 
%loop to create axes
for i=1:subplotsx
for ii=1:subplotsy
 
ax=axes('position',sub_pos{i,ii},'XGrid','off','XMinorGrid','off','FontSize',fontsize,'Box','on','Layer','top');
 
z=peaks;
contour(z);
 
if ii==subplotsy
title(['Title (',num2str(i),')'])
end
 
if ii>1
set(ax,'xticklabel',[])
end
 
if i>1
set(ax,'yticklabel',[])
end
 
if i==1
ylabel(['Ylabel (',num2str(ii),')'])
end
 
if ii==1
xlabel(['Ylabel (',num2str(i),')'])
end
 
end
end
 
%Saving eps with matlab and then producing pdf and png with system commands
filename=['test'];
print(gcf, '-depsc2','-loose',[filename,'.eps']);
system(['epstopdf ',filename,'.eps'])
system(['convert -density 300 ',filename,'.eps ',filename,'.png'])

　　

And the resulting figure looks like :

Custom subplot function for Matlab. Publishable quality figures.

If you display the figure at 100% of its size and measure it with a ruler, you will see that the figure respects perfectly the dimensions specified in the code. This code is fully customizable and can be modified to suit your needs. Anything is possible… Much better than the default Matlab subplot function!