How to use LaTeX interpreter for aligning words within an xlabel for a tilelayout?

f = figure();
t = tiledlayout( 3, 1 );
a = gobjects( 3, 1 );
for idx = 1:3
    % Plot some stuff in each subplot tile.
    a( idx ) = nexttile( idx );
    % Give each their own unique xlabels.
    xlabel( gca, ['xlabel for axis: ', num2str( idx )] );
end

% 
title( t, '\underline{title using latex formatting}', 'Interpreter', 'Latex' );
ylabel( t, 'A Y-Label that applies to all of my tiles', 'Interpreter', 'Latex' );
xlabel( t, 'Left Text\qquad{}\qquad{}\qquad{}Center Text\qquad{}\qquad{}\qquad{}Right Text', 'Interpreter', 'Latex'); % Ad-hoc, not standardized.

Is there a better way to do this? Ideally, "Left Text" is fully left-justified, "Center Text" is centered, and "Right Text" is fully right-justified. There's likely a LaTeX package that does it, but I don't know what it is and I doubt that MATLAB has it imported.

[dpb]

I dunno about "better", but probably easiest would be to just use text to place the xlabel text where you wish for each section.

Answer 1

[Jaynik]

Hi Dominik,

MATLAB just allows the use of basic LaTeX commands. The approach you have taken with \qquad{} is one way to manually adjust spacing, but it's more of a trial-and-error method and might not perfectly align text as left-justified, centered, and right-justified. For precise control over the positioning of text elements in MATLAB figures, you can use separate text annotations for each part of the text you want to align. This way, you can position "Left Text", "Center Text", and "Right Text" exactly where you want them. Here is a sample code that does the same:

title( t, '\underline{title using latex formatting}', 'Interpreter', 'Latex' );
ylabel( t, 'A Y-Label that applies to all of my tiles', 'Interpreter', 'Latex' );
% xlabel( t, 'Left Text\qquad{}\qquad{}\qquad{}Center Text\qquad{}\qquad{}\qquad{}Right Text', 'Interpreter', 'Latex'); % Ad-hoc, not standardized.

% Adjust the vertical position of the text annotations
vertPosition = 0.05; % Increase this value if the text overlaps with the subplots

leftPos = [0.1, vertPosition]; % Near the left edge, adjusted bottom position
centerPos = [0.5, vertPosition]; % Centered, adjusted bottom position
rightPos = [0.95, vertPosition]; % Near the right edge, adjusted bottom position

% Add the text annotations with adjusted positions
annotation(f, 'textbox', [leftPos, 0, 0], 'String', 'Left', ...
    'HorizontalAlignment', 'left', 'EdgeColor', 'none', ...
    'Interpreter', 'latex');
annotation(f, 'textbox', [centerPos, 0, 0], 'String', 'Center', ...
    'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'EdgeColor', 'none', ...
    'Interpreter', 'latex');
annotation(f, 'textbox', [rightPos, 0, 0], 'String', 'Right', ...
    'HorizontalAlignment', 'right', 'EdgeColor', 'none', ...
    'Interpreter', 'latex');

This approach uses the "annotation" function to create text boxes without borders at specified positions. The positions are given in normalized figure units, so you may need to adjust the "leftPos", "centerPos", and "rightPos" values to align the text exactly as you want in your specific figure layout.

You can read more about "annotation" function here: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/annotation.html

Hope this helps!