Changing font size of all axes labels

I often need to make pretty cumbersome plotting definitions in MATLAB, an example of which can be seen below

figure(1)
clf
subplot(221)
hold on
plot(z(1,:),...
    'LineWidth',2)
line([0,N], [R(1,1),R(1,1)],...
    'color','red','linestyle','--','LineWidth',2)
hold off
grid on
xlabel('$k$',...
    'interpreter','latex','fontsize',14)
ylabel('$h_1$',...
    'Interpreter','latex','FontSize',14)
legend({'closed loop','setpoint'},...
    'location','best','fontsize',14)

For simplicities sake I have only included one of four subplots. In these plots I end up writing

'interpreter','latex'

and

'fontsize',14

quite a lot. I am asking if there is a better way to do this given that the font size and interpreter type is the same for my xlabel, ylabel, and legend which it very often is for me.

I have seen some pages recommending I use something along the lines of

set(gca,'fontsize',14)

But this doesnt work for the labels for me.

TLDR: What is a "good" coding style way of configuring the tedious plot options like font size and interpreter en masse.

[Adam Danz]

I wonder what's not working for the label font size when axis font size is set using set(gca,'fontsize',14)

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

Set axis fontsize

set(gca,'fontsize', 14)

The axis fontsize affects the title, axis labels, and axis tick labels, and any legends or colorbars associated with the axes.

fontsize function (R2022a and later)

This function allows users to set a uniform fontsize across all text in graphics object just as an axes or figure or you get set a scaling factor to increase/decrease fontsize while maintaing the relative differences of fontsize between text objects. Also see this Community Highlight.

If these solutions above are not what you're looking for, here are three alternatives that focus on the xlabel and ylabel font sizes.

Idea 1: put all shared name-value properties into a cell array

For sets of name-value pairs that will be assigned to several objects, you can group them into 1 variable and assign them like this.

extraInputs = {'interpreter','latex','fontsize',14}; % name, value pairs
xlabel('$k$',extraInputs{:})
ylabel('$h_1$',extraInputs{:})
legend({'closed loop','setpoint'},extraInputs{:})

Idea 2: set the axis properties when possible

Axes do not have an interpreter property but you could avoid assigning font size (and other properties) to each axis label and legend by assigning those properties to the axes.

set(gca,'fontsize',14)
xlabel('$k$','interpreter','latex')
ylabel('$h_1$','interpreter','latex')
legend({'closed loop','setpoint'},'interpreter','latex')

Idea 3: create a local function designed to produce formatted axes and labels

Lastly, if you're creating a bunch of subplots that all have the same set of properties, create a local function that creates subplots and assigns the formatted axis labels.

figure('DefaultAxesFontSize',14)
clf
ax = newsubplot(221,'k','h_1'); 
plot(1:5,'LineWidth',2)
line([0,1], [1,2],'color','red','linestyle','--','LineWidth',2)
legend({'closed loop','setpoint'},'interpreter','latex')

function ax = newsubplot(position, xlab, ylab)
    % Creates new subplot in specified position on current figure
    % with xlab xlabel and ylab ylabel
    ax = subplot(position); 
    hold on
    set(ax,'FontSize',14) %and other properties
    xlabel(['$',xlab,'$'],'interpreter','latex')
    ylabel(['$',ylab,'$'],'interpreter','latex')
    grid on
end

[Morten Nissov]

I think

set(gca,'fontsize',14)

didn't work because I called it after xlabel and ylabel instead of before like you do. Anyway thanks so much this is exactly what I was looking for.

[Adam Danz]

Glad I could help tidy up some code!

[Steven Lord]

Other options:

If you want to change the FontSize and Intepreter properties for all the text objects in your figure, you could set default property values at the level of groot or a particular figure to affect all text object created afterwards in that session (for groot) or in that figure.

Alternately, if you've already created text objects you could use findobj or findall to locate all the graphics objects with those specific properties or of a specific Type. Once you have the vector of handles to those objects you can change the values of those properties with set in one call.

[Ilya Gurin]

I'm looking for a hybrid of idea 2 and idea 3, like this:

set(gcf, 'fontsize', 14)

Is this possible?

[Ilya Gurin]

Seems to work, actually.

set(gcf(), 'DefaultAxesFontSize', 14)

But it seems to only affect subsequent plot commands, not any existing plots.

[Adam Danz]

Use findobj to find all objects in a figure that have a font size property and then use the set command to set the font size to all of those objects. If you have trouble implementing that I can show you how.

[Adam Danz]

Answer updated 6/14/22 to include the axis fontsize property and the new fontsize function.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

For what it's worth, I'm attaching a demo to change almost anything you want in a graph by setting various properties.

Hope it helps somebody.

[Adam Danz]

Can't take my eyes off it! :)

[Lindsey]

This was so helpful!