Hi Tobias,
I had a similar problem (but I save images in .png format). I can propose the method I solved it:
- I save the image with a resolution of 300 dpi by using: print my_wonderful_image.png -dpng -r300
- I import the image by using Gimp, I crop the image and save back to the .png format.
It's not elegant, it's rather messy, but it works. I can use the images generated in this way with both LaTeX and MS Word, event to make A0 format posters, and the size of files are reasonable. In the images below: before cropping (left) and after cropping (right). The size of the two images is approximately the same, but the image on the left has some white space.
Of course this method will not work if you need to save the whole figure (= with the title, and the GUI elements). In this case, you can tweak the figure by modifying the property Position of the axes:
t = linspace(0, 2*pi, 256);
xlabel('t', 'FontSize', 16);
ylabel('sin(t)', 'FontSize', 16);
ax = gca ; ax.Position = [0.11 0.11 0.87 0.87];
Hereafter the two figures (= before and after tweaking the position):