How can I enlarge the legend box-size?

Hi,

I am plotting two curves and defining their parameters using the legend. The code is as follows

 hleg1 = legend ( ['$ n/n_c = $' num2str(den1)], ['$ n/n_c = $' num2str(den2)] );
 set(hleg1,'Interpreter','latex')
 set(gca,'fontsize',15)

My problem is that as soon as I change the font size to 15 the box around the legends doesn't expand automatically and I have legends of the curves going outside the legend box. Can anybody suggest something?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

legend() is implemented by creating a new axis, the handle of which is returned. You should be setting Interpreter and fontsize for the text entries rather than the axis.

[hleg1, hobj1] = legend( ...);
textobj = findobj(hobj1, 'type', 'text');
set(textobj, 'Interpreter', 'latex', 'fontsize', 15);

Then if you find you need to, set() the Position property of hleg1.

[Naveen]

Thanks! It seems to work and it's a bit faster than the previous method I was trying. I don't know why? However I have another question. I have two legends and I could make it work as follows

 [hobj1 hobj2] = legend ( ['$ n/n_c = $' num2str(den1)], ['$ n/n_c = $'  num2str(den2)] );
 textobj1 = findobj( hobj1,'type', 'text' );
 set( textobj1, 'Interpreter', 'latex', 'fontsize', 15 );
 textobj2 = findobj(hobj2, 'type', 'text');
 set(textobj2, 'Interpreter', 'latex', 'fontsize', 15);
 set(gca,'fontsize',15)

Is there any way that I don't have to define two textobj1 and textobj2 and set property for each one? I tried naively in the same way as I defined [hobj1 hobj2] but that didn't work.

[Walter Roberson]

You have a legend with two entries. The second value returned by legend() is the handles to the objects that went up to make the legend, including the text objects. The findobj() reduces the list down to just the text objects. The set() then affects all of those text objects. So already this code works for legends with multiple entries.

Answer 2

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

   set(hleg1,'position',[0 0 0.2 0.2])

In general

set(hleg1,'position',[x0 y0 width height])

[Naveen]

Thanks a lot! Your methods is really robust, though I had to experiment with coordinates a bit, but it works beautifully now!

[Marya Sadki]

Thanks, that what i search for.

[Jan]

Does this syntax still work in 2022b?

set(hleg1,'position',[x0 y0 width height])

Unrecognized function or variable 'hleg1'.

I try to make the box twice as high to increase the spacing between legend entries (because one of them is multi-line).

set(hleg1,'Location', 'NorthEastOutside');
sz = get(hleg1, 'position');
sz(2) = sz(2)-sz(4); % Make the bottom lower
sz(4) = 2*sz(4);     % Make the heigth larger
set(hleg1,'position', sz);

This does indeed resize the legend, but the axes switch to full width, which is unwanted. Adding

set(hleg1,'Location', 'NorthEastOutside');

again, after all this also resizes the legend back to its original tight version.

Answer 3

[Max Riedel]

A simple workaround is to put additional spacing after the text.

E.g., by using \quad:

    hleg1 = legend ( ['$ n/n_c = $' num2str(den1) '$\quad$'], ['$ n/n_c = $' num2str(den2) '$\quad$'] );