how to move text away from axis?

I wanted to rotate my y axis label but now it is overlapping with the y axis. Is there a way that I can move the text (only for the y axis on the right) away from the axis?

%%f2=figure(2);
left_color = [1 0 0];
right_color = [0 0 1];
set(f2,'defaultAxesColorOrder',[left_color; right_color]);
yyaxis right
plot(x,CA2,'b','LineWidth',2)
hold on
plot(x,NY2,'-','MarkerFaceColor','b','LineWidth',2)
plot(x,FL2,'-','MarkerFaceColor','b','LineWidth',2)
ylabel('Percent Unsheltered','fontsize', 14);
set(get(gca,'YLabel'),'Rotation',-90)
yyaxis left
p1=plot(x,CA1/1000,'r')
hold on
p2=plot(x,NY1/1000,'r-^','MarkerFaceColor','r')
p3=plot(x,FL1/1000,'r-o','MarkerFaceColor','r')
legend([p1 p2 p3],{'\color{red} CA','\color{red} NY','\color{red} FL'},'Location','best','fontsize', 14);
ylabel('Homeless Population (Thousands)','fontsize', 14)
ylim([0 150]);
% line([2006.1 2006.1],[0 150],'Color','k','LineWidth',2)
% line([2010 2010],[0 150],'Color','k','LineWidth',2)
annotation('doublearrow',[0.14 0.31],[0.7 0.7],'LineWidth',1)
%gray box
annotation('rectangle',[0.13 0.11 0.193 0.814],'FaceColor',[0.6 0.6 0.6],'EdgeColor', 'none','FaceAlpha',0.2)
text(2007.15,115,'Recession')
text(2006.7,141,'CA','Color', 'b')
text(2006.7,122,'NY','Color', 'b')
text(2006.7,20,'FL','Color', 'b')
text(2017.1,135,'-3.4%','Color','r','fontsize', 14)
text(2017.1,90,'+43.0%','Color','r','fontsize', 14)
text(2017.1,33.5,'-33.0%','Color','r','fontsize', 14)
text(2009.8,100,'NY Shelter System Growth','Color','b','fontsize', 12)
annotation('arrow',[0.43 0.45],...
[0.68 0.84],'LineWidth',1,'Color','b')
%legend outside
legend1 = legend('show');
set(legend1,...
'Position',[0.0242817408376966 0.78412296037296 0.0675392670157068 0.0952797202797202],...
'FontSize',14);
box off
xlim([2006 2018])
xlabel('Years');
xticks([2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017])
box on
% Create line
annotation('line',[0.903664921465969 0.904712041884817],...
[0.924825174825175 0.11013986013986],'Color',[0 0 1],'LineWidth',3);
%turn on grid lines
set(gca,'XGrid','off')
set(gca,'YGrid','on')
ax = gca;
ax.GridColor = [0, 0, 0];
%white background
set(gcf,'color','w');
%window size
set(gcf, 'Units', 'Normalized', 'OuterPosition', [0 0 .5 .5]);
%title
title('Largest Homeless Populations 2007-2017', 'fontsize', 18);

Answer 1

[JohnGalt]

This may not be the most elegant solution but it is easily tailorable - if you don't rotate the lables you can append some white space to the labels and thereby add some distance to the axis - see the code below:

figure;plot(magic(10))
ylabels = get(gca,'YTickLabels');
for i=1:length(ylabels); 
   ylabels{i} = ([ylabels{i} '  ']); 
end
set(gca,'YTickLabels',ylabels)

Answer 2

[Gautam]

Hello Minka,

I understand that you have the “ylabel” overlapping with the y-axis of your plot and that you want to increase the space between the “ylabel” and the y-axis.

To accomplish this you can use the “set” command:

set(Labely, "Position", [-5 25.0000 1]);

The command takes the “ylabel” handle as the first input and changes the “Position” property to the desired value.

The code below shows the usage of the command in changing the position of the “ylabel”

figure; 
Z = peaks; 
plot = contourf(Z); 
Labely = ylabel("Y - Label"); 
Labelx = xlabel("X - Label"); 
set(Labely, "Position", [-5 25.0000 1]); 

The plot before and after setting the position of the “ylabel” respectively is shown below:

Hope this helps