Re: Trouble with Octave plots - can't display nor print in desired proportion

[Ben Abbott]

On Jul 4, 2013, at 8:41 PM, James Sheils wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 11:57 PM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On Jul 4, 2013, at 1:47 PM, James Sheils wrote:
>> 
>> > Firstly, I would like declare I am new to the list! I have been using 
>> > Octave for around 2 weeks now, and have found it to be a great way to 
>> > create plots a series of problem sets I am creating for my physics 
>> > students.
>> >
>> > However, I have run into difficulty when trying to get the plots to 
>> > display the axes in the proportion I wish.
>> >
>> > I am running:
>> >
>> > Mac OSX: 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion), Octave: 3.6.4, GNUplot: 4.6 patchlevel 3, 
>> > Aquaterm: 1.1.1
>> >
>> > My code plots 2d functions with grid lines resembling graph paper so that 
>> > students can easily interact with the plot (draw tangent and calculate 
>> > gradient, read off values, sketch other plots on the same axes, etc...).
>> >
>> > The goal is to have the plot print on the page with 1cm graph paper.
>> >
>> > My progress is such that I have everything in place except one thing - I 
>> > can't get the figures to print in the right size! I can't even get them to 
>> > print in the correct proportion.
>> >
>> > Ideally, I'd like to save a pdf from the Aquaterm window, as I think the 
>> > plots look better that way. My plan was to import the pdf into LaTeX at a 
>> > consistent width (say, 15cm), and then have the code scale the graphs 
>> > accordingly. However, this has not been working at all.
>> >
>> > There are two variable to input:
>> >
>> > length of x axis (in cm), length of y axis (in cm)
>> >
>> > Assume that the paper width is 15cm, and that the x axis never exceeds 
>> > this length.
>> >
>> > NOTE: I do not wish the axes values to be in proportion (I don't want 
>> > '1.0' on the x axis to necessarily be the same length as '1.0' on the y 
>> > axis).
>> >
>> > I am in quite a muddle about which commands I should be using... any help 
>> > would be greatly appreciated!
>> 
>> Are you familiar with the axes "position" property, and the figure's 
>> "paperposition" property?  The physical height and width of the axes box 
>> will be ...
>> 
>>         height = get (gca (), "position") (4) * get (gcf (), 
>> "paperpositionproperty") (4)
>> 
>>         width = get (gca (), "position") (3) * get (gcf (), 
>> "paperpositionproperty") (3)
>> 
>> If you set these property values correctly you'll get the result you're 
>> looking for.  Note, you only need to modify the "paperpositon".  If you take 
>> that approach what you see on the screen will not be effected.
>> 
>> Ben
>> 
> 
> Thankyou for your reply, Ben.
> 
> However, when I type your code, I get the error:
> 
> "error: get: unknown figure property paperpositionproperty"
> 
> I'm sorry if I have misunderstood what you are saying!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> James

James, first a couple points on mail-list etiquette, please don't top-post (do 
not reply at the top of the email).  Instead reply at the bottom so that those 
who arrive later can follow along.  Second, be sure the "reply-all".  The 
mail-list is archived in several locations, and we'd like to keep the entire 
conversation intact so that others looking for similar advice can find it via 
Google.

Regarding "paperpositionproperty", that was a typo on my part.  The correct 
property name is just "paperposition".

The positionposition property is a [1x4] double.  The first and second elements 
refer to the lower left corner of the figure (axes box with labels, etc).  The 
third and fourth elements are the width and height.  The units are designed in 
"paperunits" which is in inches by default.  The axes' "position" property is 
also a [1x4] double and also formatted as [xLL, yLL, width, height]. Its units 
are specified by the axes' "units" property, which is set to "normalized" by 
default (indication that xLL and width are normalized to paperposition(3) and 
yLL and height to paperposition(4).

Ben