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How to change figure size?

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John
John on 30 Jan 2015
Answered: karim botros on 12 Jun 2023
I'm trying to change the figure size. In the example below, I expected figure(2) to have a different size. In order to achieve this, I added:
set(gcf, 'PaperUnits', 'inches');
set(gcf, 'PaperSize', [4 2]);
set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual');
set(gcf, 'PaperPosition', [0 0 4 2]);
Any idea why this isn't working?
clc;
clear all;
t = 0:.1:4*pi;
y = sin(t);
figure(1)
set(gcf, 'renderer', 'painters');
plot(t,y)
xlabel('Time(s)')
ylabel('y(t)')
title('Sin function')
legend('y=sin(t)')
axis([0 t(end) -1.5 1.5])
set(gca,...
'Units','normalized',...
'YTick',-1.5:.5:1.5,...
'XTick',0:t(end)/4:t(end),...
'FontUnits','points',...
'FontWeight','normal',...
'FontSize',9,...
'FontName','Times')
set(gca, 'Position', get(gca, 'OuterPosition') - ...
get(gca, 'TightInset') * [-1 0 1 0; 0 -1 0 1; 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 1]);
figure(2)
set(gcf, 'renderer', 'painters');
set(gcf, 'PaperUnits', 'inches');
set(gcf, 'PaperSize', [4 2]);
set(gcf, 'PaperPositionMode', 'manual');
set(gcf, 'PaperPosition', [0 0 4 2]);
plot(t,y)
xlabel('Time(s)')
ylabel('y(t)')
title('Sin function')
legend('y=sin(t)')
axis([0 t(end) -1.5 1.5])
set(gca,...
'Units','normalized',...
'YTick',-1.5:.5:1.5,...
'XTick',0:t(end)/4:t(end),...
'FontUnits','points',...
'FontWeight','normal',...
'FontSize',9,...
'FontName','Times')
set(gca, 'Position', get(gca, 'OuterPosition') - ...
get(gca, 'TightInset') * [-1 0 1 0; 0 -1 0 1; 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 1]);

Accepted Answer

Chad Greene
Chad Greene on 30 Jan 2015
Edited: MathWorks Support Team on 28 Apr 2021
The paper size options are for printing, so they don’t change the size of the figure.
The ‘Position’ property sets the size of the figure (in pixels by default). Specify the property as a vector of the form [x y width height], where x and y define the distance from the lower-left corner of the screen to the lower-left corner of the figure. Also note that you can set several properties at once without calling set(gcf,… multiple times. You can even include them when you create the figure:
figure('Renderer', 'painters', 'Position', [10 10 900 600])
You can also save a handle to your figure and set the Position property using dot notation:
f = figure;
f.Position = [100 100 540 400];
For an example of changing figure size programmatically, see the following:https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/figure.html#mw_e279e63f-1641-4b14-a781-c5facd020190
For more information on figure properties, refer to the following Documentation:https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.ui.figure-properties.html
  6 Comments
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 22 Oct 2017
To maximize the figure window in Windows, you can use the attached function.
Otherwise you can also use code like this, to take up most of the screen except for the task bar at the bottom.
% Enlarge figure to full screen.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'Normalized', 'OuterPosition', [0, 0.04, 1, 0.96]);
The latter code just resizes - it does not do an official "maximization" like the attached function does.
Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 20 Feb 2020
This is a bit late, but if you're using release R2018a or later you can use the WindowState property of figure objects to maximize or minimize the figure or display it in full-screen mode instead of using the function Image Analyst attached to the comment above.

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More Answers (5)

Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro
First, there seems to be some confusion as to what your refer by size, which can be a) on the screen or b) printed or c) in pixel size (as in a jpg).
If you want to have the two figures in the screen with identical sizes, then the important parameter is 'Position' OF THE FIGURE, i.e.
figure(1)
plot(t,y)
set(gcf,'Position',[100 100 500 500])
figure(2)
plot(t2,y2)
set(gcf,'Position',[100 100 500 500])
That will have the two figures with exactly the same size, and in the same position. You can change where each is placed and the dimensions. Actually, it is better to use handles than gcf as gcf uses the last figure that was addressed, example
h1=figure(1);
plot(t,y)
set(h1,'Position',[10 10 500 500])
h2=figure(2);
plot(t2,y2)
set(h2,'Position',[510 10 500 500])
Notice that gcf refers to figures, if you change with gca, you will be moving the axis INSIDE the figure but the figure size will not change.
If you want to change in print or in an external image let me know and I will expand.
  2 Comments
Jan Cagan
Jan Cagan on 23 Jul 2018
Dear Constantino,
Thank you for the detailed answer. As regards "Printing and Exporting" properties of a figure, I am dealing with this properties correctly I think. Currently, I am observing that the problem is not about exporting. Also, other graphical objects have problems with size consistency. For example, "msgbox" with the same text has different size sometimes...
J.
Henri Skinner
Henri Skinner on 9 Sep 2020
This was very helpful for my problem, thanks Constantino!

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Chad Greene
Chad Greene on 30 Jan 2015
For full-screen figures, you can use fullfig.

Jan Cagan
Jan Cagan on 5 Jun 2018
Hi,
I am using this figure initialization and export:
fig = figure('units','inch','position',[0,0,3.3,2*3.3/3]);
print(fig,name,'-r800','-dpng');
In most cases, the output has the same size, but sometimes the size is a bit different. Why? How to avoid this behavior? I am using Matlab in Ubuntu 16.04 with -nodesktop -softwareopengl
Thank you in advance. J.
  1 Comment
Ethan Duckworth
Ethan Duckworth on 10 Oct 2022
It's hard to know without seeing your examples why they come out slightly different. But I would guess it's the labels and/or numbers on the axes.

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carlo
carlo on 4 Aug 2022
Edited: Walter Roberson on 6 Aug 2022
clear;clc;
alfa 0:2:6.28;
Unrecognized function or variable 'alfa'.
y=sin(alfa);
plot (alfa,y,'r')
  2 Comments
Rik
Rik on 5 Aug 2022
@carlo How exactly does your answer relate to the question? And what does your flag mean? Did you have a question?
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 6 Aug 2022
You missed an = to assign those values to alfa

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karim botros
karim botros on 12 Jun 2023
It is simple in matlab, this feature is integrated in position property of Figure function.
All you have to do is to replace the values of startingX startingY Width Height, like the following:
figure('Position',[startingX startingY Width Height]);
% Example with numerical values.
figure('Position',[600 100 1500 1000]);
It is a bit not very intuitive in matlab since they combine size and position in one property but now you know to set them both.

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