Graphics

Printing to a Printer, Setting the Size of and Centering a Figure

This example sets the size of a figure to 5.5-by-3 inches and centers it on the paper:

• From the Windows and UNIX menus
• From the command line

From the Windows and UNIX Menus

1. Select Page Setup from the figure window's File menu and select the Size and Position tab.
2. Make sure that Use screen size, centered on page is unchecked.
3. Enter 5.5 in the Width field and 3 in the Height field. (You can type these values or click the arrows to select the new size.)
4. Make sure that Units field is set to Inches.
5. Click Center.
6. Click OK.

From the Command Line

1. Start by setting PaperUnits to inches.

   set(gcf,'PaperUnits','inches')
   

2. Use PaperSize to return the size of the current paper.

   papersize = get(gcf,'PaperSize')
   
   papersize =
                 8.5000   11.0000
   

3. Initialize variables to the desired width and height of the figure.

   width = 5.5;         % Initialize a variable for width.
   height = 3;          % Initialize a varible for height.
   

4. Calculate a left margin that centers the figure horizontally on the paper. Use the first element of PaperSize (width of paper) for the calculation.

   left = (PaperSize(1)- width)/2
   
   left =
             1.5000
   

5. Calculate a bottom margin that centers the figure vertically on the paper. Use the second element of PaperSize (height of paper) for the calculation.

   bottom = (PaperSize(2)- height)/2
   
   bottom =
             4
   

6. Set the figure size and print.

   myfiguresize = [left, bottom, width, height];
   set(gcf, 'PaperPosition', myfiguresize);
   print
   

Printing to a Printer, Setting the Paper Size

Printing to a Nondefault Printer