Change size of plotyy figure before saving.

Hi, I would like to change the size of a "plotyy" plot and save it as a eps file. Having the following figure:

    h = figure(1)
    [ax,p1,p2] = plotyy(aElem,z1,aElem,z2,'plot');
      set(p1,'LineStyle','*','Color','k');
      set(p2,'LineStyle','o','Color','k');
      set(ax,{'yColor'},{'k';'k'})
      set(ax,'xColor','k')
      grid on
      xl = xlabel(ax(2),'Crack length [mm]');

I would like to reduce the figure size before saving. The challenge for me is to do it without cutting off some of the x label text. I usually do the following for normal plots with "plot":

figWidth = 10.0; %cm
figHeight = 7.2;  %cm
pixelsCm = 1680/47.5; % pixels per cm on my computer

set(gca, 'Units', 'centimeters'); % axes definitions are in cm
lpos = get(gca, 'OuterPosition'); % Gets outer position of the axes
set(gca, 'OuterPosition', [lpos(1)-0.2 lpos(2)-0.2 figWidth-1 figHeight]); % Reduce margins. [left bottom width height] are normalized to [0, 1]. Use negative values for left and bottom to trim off left/bottom margins. 

set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual'); % Lets you setup figure size manually so that 'PaperPosition' defines size of exported grapics.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'pixels', 'Position',[10*pixelsCm 10*pixelsCm figWidth*pixelsCm figHeight*pixelsCm]); % position on screen and size of figure. The pixelsCm lets you print out in the true size on screen.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'centimeters','PaperPosition', [1 1 figWidth figHeight]); % Sets the size of the figure for the saved eps file.

and then save the figure with:

saveas(h,'figurename.eps', 'psc2')

But this only changes one of the axes. Does anyone know how to change both the same?

Thanks in advance.

Regards Brian

Answer 1

[Michael Haderlein]

You need the handles of both axes. You already use these handles as first output argument of plotyy in a variable you call ax:

 [ax,p1,p2] = plotyy(aElem,z1,aElem,z2,'plot');
 ...
 set(ax,{'yColor'},{'k';'k'})

So, later in your code, you should simply use ax instead of gca and that's it.

Edit:

In this line:

 lpos = get(gca, 'OuterPosition');

you might want to keep gca or use ax(1). Otherwise you'll get a cell and things get complicated with no need.

[Brian]

Hi Michael

Thanks for you answer. I think it fixed some of my problem, but not everything. The saved figure still looks wrong.

I generate the image using this code:

clc; clear all

h = figure(1);
  z1 = 1:100;
  z2 = z1.^2;
  x = 1:100;
[ax,p1,p2] = plotyy(x,z1,x,z2,'plot');
  set(p1,'Marker','*','Color','k');
  set(p2,'Marker','o','Color','k');
  set(ax,{'yColor'},{'k';'k'})
  set(ax,'xColor','k')
  grid on
  xl = xlabel(ax(2),'x label');

figWidth = 10.0; %cm
figHeight = 7.2;  %cm
pixelsCm = 1680/47.5; % pixels per cm on my computer
set(gca, 'Units', 'centimeters'); % axes definitions are in cm
lpos = get(gca, 'OuterPosition'); % Gets outer position of the axes
set(ax, 'OuterPosition', [lpos(1)-0.2 lpos(2)-0.2 figWidth-1 figHeight]); % Reduce margins. [left bottom width height] are normalized to [0, 1]. Use negative values for left and bottom to trim off left/bottom margins. 
set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual'); % Lets you setup figure size manually so that 'PaperPosition' defines size of exported grapics.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'pixels', 'Position',[10*pixelsCm 10*pixelsCm figWidth*pixelsCm figHeight*pixelsCm]); % position on screen and size of figure. The pixelsCm lets you print out in the true size on screen.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'centimeters','PaperPosition', [1 1 figWidth figHeight]); % Sets the size of the figure for the saved eps file.

saveas(h,'tester.eps', 'psc2')

[Brian]

I changed some more following your idea and now it works. Thanks for the answer. The code now looks like:

clc; clear all;close all;

h = figure(1);
  z1 = 1:100;
  z2 = z1.^2;
  x = 1:100;
[ax,p1,p2] = plotyy(x,z1,x,z2,'plot');
  set(p1,'Marker','*','Color','k');
  set(p2,'Marker','o','Color','k');
  set(ax,{'yColor'},{'k';'k'})
  set(ax,'xColor','k')
  grid on
  xl = xlabel(ax(2),'x label');

figWidth = 10.0; %cm
figHeight = 7.2;  %cm
pixelsCm = 1680/47.5; % pixels per cm on my computer
set(ax, 'Units', 'centimeters'); % axes definitions are in cm
lpos = get(ax(1), 'OuterPosition'); % Gets outer position of the axes
set(ax, 'OuterPosition', [lpos(1)-0.2 lpos(2)+0.5 figWidth-1 figHeight]); % Reduce margins. [left bottom width height] are normalized to [0, 1]. Use negative values for left and bottom to trim off left/bottom margins. 
set(h, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual'); % Lets you setup figure size manually so that 'PaperPosition' defines size of exported grapics.
set(h, 'Units', 'pixels', 'Position',[10*pixelsCm 10*pixelsCm figWidth*pixelsCm figHeight*pixelsCm]); % position on screen and size of figure. The pixelsCm lets you print out in the true size on screen.
set(h, 'Units', 'centimeters','PaperPosition', [1 1 figWidth figHeight]); % Sets the size of the figure for the saved eps file.

saveas(h,'tester.eps', 'psc2')

[Michael Haderlein]

You're welcome.