Label text truncated after increasing font size

Question

I followed the procedures in this question, and also tried setting individual text object with larger fonts. Here is my sample code:

hf = figure;
set(hf, 'DefaultAxesFontSize', 14)
hx = axes('Parent',hf);
[hx,hp1,hp2] = plotyy(hx, rand(10,1),rand(10,1),rand(10,1),rand(10,1),'scatter');
hlx = xlabel(hx(1), 'Only half of this line show up');
hl1 = ylabel(hx(1), 'Not usually truncated but less border');
hl2 = ylabel(hx(2), 'Only part of this line show up');
ht  = title(hx(1), 'Too close to border');

As can be seen in the picture, the labels get truncated by the border of the figure. I have to drag the figure to very large - contrary to desired - in order to reveal all text.

How can I automatically set the text box according to the text font size, so that even for small graphs they don't get cut?

I know I can do it manually by setting Position of the axes but it's kind of manual and guess-and-try. Is there any automatic way to calculate the margins?

Answer 1

One thing that can be done is to calculate increased margin according to new text font size. Assume we know Matlab's default font size is 10, or otherwise get it by get(hf,'DefaultAxesFontSize').

Then get the relative position of the axes by get(hx, 'Position'), which gives four percentage values. First two define left and bottom margin. Since it's for the labels, increasing the font size from 10 to 14 means the text box should grow by 1.4 times. The next two numbers define the size of the axis. Since text boxes on both sides grow by 1.4 times, assuming original size being x, then new size is 1-[(1-x)*1.4] = 1.4x - 0.4.

Suggested workaround:

hf = figure;
set(hf, 'DefaultAxesFontSize', 14)
hx = axes('Parent',hf);
set(hx, 'Position', [1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4].*get(hx, 'Position')+ [0 0 -.4 -.4])
[hx,hp1,hp2] = plotyy(hx, rand(10,1),rand(10,1),rand(10,1),rand(10,1),'scatter');
hlx = xlabel(hx(1), 'Only half of this line show up');
hl1 = ylabel(hx(1), 'Not usually truncated but less border');
hl2 = ylabel(hx(2), 'Only part of this line show up');
ht  = title(hx(1), 'Too close to border');

You may replace the manually entered number 1.4 with the ratio between newly assigned (bigger, hopefully) font size and the original size which is 10.