How can I label my graphs as (a), (b), (c) etc in subplot matlab?
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I want to describe the graphs in figure caption by referencing them as (a), (b) (c) etc
Accepted Answer
Image Analyst
on 13 Dec 2018
Use subplot() and title().
% Plot (a) plot.
subplot(3, 1, 1);
plot(1:10, 'r-');
title('(a)', 'FontSize', 15);
% Plot (b) plot.
subplot(3, 1, 2);
plot(10*sin(0:.1:10), 'b-', 'LineWidth', 2);
grid on;
title('(b)', 'FontSize', 15);
% Plot (a) plot.
subplot(3, 1, 3);
plot(cos(1:10), 'k*', 'MarkerSize', 15, 'LineWidth', 2);
grid on;
title('(c)', 'FontSize', 15);
![0000 Screenshot.png](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/198961/0000%20Screenshot.png)
Or you could use xlabel() if you want to put the letters under the x axis, or text() if you want to place them wherever you want.
More Answers (4)
Sterling Baird
on 21 Oct 2020
Edited: Sterling Baird
on 21 Oct 2020
Personally, I've liked using:
nIDs = 4;
alphabet = ('a':'z').';
chars = num2cell(alphabet(1:nIDs));
chars = chars.';
charlbl = strcat('(',chars,')'); % {'(a)','(b)','(c)','(d)'}
text(0.025,0.95,charlbl{1},'Units','normalized','FontSize',12)
This works fine for me for tiled layouts, and does a decent job for scientific figures.
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/386913/image.png)
4 Comments
Image Analyst
on 13 Apr 2022
@Wiqas Ahmad Try using text() or put it into the title or axes labels using sprintf() and title() or xlabel() or ylabel().
Sanita Dhaubanjar
on 2 May 2023
You can make the label generation shorter using:
charlbl = compose("(%s)",('a':'z').');
Alex Ryabov
on 7 Jul 2021
Edited: Alex Ryabov
on 7 Jul 2021
I hope this function will help
fg = figure(1);
clf
subplot(2, 2, 1)
subplot(2, 2, 2)
subplot(2, 1, 2)
legend
colorbar
AddLetters2Plots(fg, 'HShift', 0, 'VShift', 0, 'Direction', 'TopDown')
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/676833/image.png)
0 Comments
Dion Wilde
on 17 May 2023
Edited: Dion Wilde
on 18 May 2023
Personally i found my optimum with the following solution:
ax=gca;
% read out the position of the axis in the unit "characters"
set(ax,'Units','characters'); a=get(ax,'Position');
% this determines the type of the plot
if isequal(get(ax,'View'),[0 90]) % this is used for 2D plots
str_place=2;
else % this is used for 3D plots, in this case also all other plots
str_place=-2;
end
% this sets an 'a)' right at the top left of the axes
text(ax,0,a(end)+str_place,'a)','Units','characters')
I specifically used the units "characters" here, because it consistently sets the character above the axes indepently of the actual size of the axis. The latter is difficult if not impossible to do with "units", "normalized".
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