How to save good quality plots in Matlab using code?

Hi Everyone. I have done few spatial plots in matlab. But, I am facing problem while saving the plots using code. However, during manually saving plots I do not have any problems. For few plots it is fine to save manually, but for large number of plots it is difficult to save one by one plot manually. I am attaching two files along with this question, one of then is saved by code and another is saved manually.

test_1.jpg: It is saved manually

test_2.jpg: It is saved using code

I plotted and saved the code using the following code. In test_1.jpg the plot is showing quite good (it is saved manually by maximize the plotting window), but test_2.jpg is not that good. Please show me some light on this issue. I hope my issue is clear, please let me know if you have any doubt. Thanks in advance. Also, if anyone can tell how to generate good quality plots, for publication/posters that will be really helpful.

for i = 1:1
    figure
    pcolor(lon, lat, net_all_sky(:, :, i)')
    shading interp
    colormap("jet")
    colorbar
    hold on
    plot(coastlon, coastlat, "Color", 'k', "LineWidth", 1.5)
    plot(coastlon+360, coastlat, "Color", 'k', "LineWidth", 1.5)
    grid on
    set(gca,'layer','top')
    ax = gca;
    ax.GridLineWidth = 1.5;
    ax.GridAlpha = 0.4;
    c = colorbar;
    clim([-200 170])
    ylabel(c, "TOA short wave flux in Wm^{-2}", "FontSize", 15, "FontWeight", "bold")
    title(months(i))
    exportgraphics(ax, "test_2.jpg", "Resolution", 300)
end

Answer 1

[Venkat Siddarth Reddy]

Hi @SWARNENDU PAL,

I understand that the you trying to automate the process of saving a plot, but you are facing an issue with the quality of the image generated.

After comparing the manually generated image with the image generated by the script, I noticed that the manually created image displays the plot in a maximized window format, as you provided. However, the image generated by the script appears in a compact format.

To maximize the window of the plot before saving it , you can set the "WindowState" property of the "figure" to "maximized" and then export the plot:

figure('WindowState','maximized')

To learn more about "WindowState" and other properties of "figure", please refer to the documentation: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.ui.figure-properties.html

If this approach doesn't generate an image of your desired quality, I would recommend increasing the "Resolution" of the image being exported after maximizing the plot window.

I hope this helps!

[SWARNENDU PAL]

It worked nicely. Thanks. Attaching the photo along with this reply.