How can I save a figure as an EPS file without white margins?

I want to export a MATLAB figure and include it, as a vector image, and without white margins, in a latex document, therefore I need an eps file. The problem is that sometimes the file obtained using saveas has white margins, sometimes not. For example I noticed a strange behaviour with this code which uses the function scatter3. I'm plotting two points; if the two points have at least one equal coordinate, the resulting EPS file has no margin:

x = [10 10];
y = [100 110];
z = [20 30];

fig = figure;
scatter3(x,y,z)

saveas(fig,"figure_test",'epsc')

while if the two points have no equal coordinates, the resulting EPS has white margins

x = [20 10];
y = [100 110];
z = [20 30];

fig = figure;
scatter3(x,y,z)

saveas(fig,"figure_test",'epsc')

How can I force MATLAB to save the eps file without margin?

[Chandramouli Santhanam]

4 years later, I still have the same problem in R2021b. Using exportgraphics instead of saveas doesn't solve the problem of white spaces when trying to save as an eps file. And like the OP has posted, sometimes I get the white space, and some times I don't. If anyone has found a solution, it would be still be of help!

[BenediktS]

Yes, I have the same problem with R2021b. Does anybody know if a newer version fixes this problem?

[Ramon Abritta Aguiar Santos]

Using exportgraphics(gcf,'myfigure.eps') works perfectly for me. No undesired white spaces from what I have seen so far. Version R2024a.

Answer 1

[Sreelakshmi S.B]

You can go through the following link. It explains in detail how to save a figure with minimal white space:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_plots/save-figure-with-minimal-white-space.html

Currently there is no MATLAB command that directly expands the axes to eliminate all of the margins in a figure.

However, this can be accomplished through manipulation of the 'Position', 'TightInset', and optionally 'OuterPosition' properties of the axes and the ‘PaperPosition’ property of the figure.

When you create a graph or display an image, MATLAB automatically creates an axes. The axes is sized to fit in the current figure and there are basically 3 different position vectors associated with the created axes that determine the bounds of the axes. These bounds (gray borders) affect both the display as well as the printing of the figure.

The position vectors associated with the axes are defined as follows:

Position -- The boundary of the axes, excluding the tick marks and labels, title, and axis labels.

OuterPosition -- The boundary of the axes including the axis labels, title, and a margin. For figures with only one axes, this is the interior of the figure.

TightInset -- The margins added to the width and height of the Position property to include text labels, title, and axis labels.

For more information on these axes properties, including a graphical interpretation, you can view the help documentation by executing:

doc axes_props

[Alessio Mora]

Thanks for the answer! However I already read that page and I had problems since I wanted to have the same length for the data units in the different axes.

The fact is that if you test my first code you can see that MATLAB automatically removes the white margins, while in the second one it does not. It would be great to understand how to apply this "cut" every time.

An alternative would be to execute another program (maybe written in MATLAB but also in another language) which cuts the margins after generating the eps.

There is also the function export_fig:https://it.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-export_fig

which can cut the margin but I had some problems with the background color