MATLAB: How to align text in text box

text alignmenttext box

Hello,

I'm having trouble formatting text in a text box. I want everything to be aligned to look nice. Below is a snippet of my code.

f_annotate = sprintf(['Compressor HP: %8.0f HP' ...
                      '\nHeater Power: %9.0f HP' ... 
                      '\nTime difference: %12s' ...
                      '\nSaved Time: %17s' ...
                      '\nPercent Error: %8.0f%%'], ...
                      runningHP, q2, difference, saved_time, percent_error)
dim = [.2 .3 .4 .5];
a = annotation('textbox', dim, 'String', f_annotate, 'FitBoxToText', 'on');%

    a.FontSize = 16.2;
    a.FontName = 'Helvetica';
    a.FontWeight = 'normal';
    a.BackgroundColor = 'white';

In the command window, my code outputs:

f_annotate =
Compressor HP:       77 HP
Heater Power:        60 HP
Time difference:     01:02:39
Saved Time:          00:46:59
Percent Error:       15%

This is exactly what I want. However, when I enter it in a text box on a graph, this is what I get:

The alignment is messed up and I'm not sure why. I tried using \t but It's output only works in the command window. The only command that seems to work for me in the text box is \n and using spaces. However, the spaces make the code look a bit messy and they don't line up exactly. Any ideas of how to align the text properly?

Best Answer

Helvetica is a proportional width font. You need a fixed width font.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Exporting figure to pdf: legend text extends beyond frame etc.

I think the issue you're seeing is because the font used in the generated PDF file is not the same as the font specified in the figure.

In the example figure you posted, both the title and the legend are using Calibri as the font. The exported PDF file uses Courier instead.

MATLAB supports a small set of fonts when exporting to PDF and PostScript, and Calibri is not one of the fonts that is supported. If the font isn't supported a substitution occurs when exporting, and in this case Courier is being used.

If you set the axes and legend text to use Helvetica instead you should see better results.

% this assumes   ax    and   leg   are handles to the axes and legend objects: 
set(ax, 'FontName', 'Helvetica');
set(leg, 'FontName, 'Helvetica');

MATLAB: Annotation box left corner position

A few things are happening here. First, by default, the alignment of the text in an annotation text box is in the upper right corner. That positioning is done before the box is trimmed to the text, which leaves the text floating pretty far from the desired location. You can change this easily by adjusting the vertical alignment.

hf = figure;
for ia = 1:4
    ha(ia) = subplot(2,2,ia);
end
pos = get(ha, 'position');
dim = cellfun(@(x) x.*[1 1 0.5 0.5], pos, 'uni',0);
annotation(hf, 'textbox', dim{1}, 'String', 'test 1');
annotation(hf, 'textbox', dim{2}, 'String', 'test 2', 'FitBoxToText','on');
annotation(hf, 'textbox', dim{3}, 'String', 'test 3', 'verticalalignment', 'bottom');
annotation(hf, 'textbox', dim{4}, 'String', 'test 4', 'FitBoxToText','on',  'verticalalignment', 'bottom');

The second issue has to do with the positions of the axes themselves. You'll notice that even when you fix the alignment issue, the horizontal location of the annotations overlap with the axis lines:

hf = figure;
for ia = 1:4
    ha(ia) = subplot(2,2,ia);
end
arrayfun(@(x) pbaspect(x, [1 1 1]), ha);
drawnow;
pos = get(ha, 'position');
dim = cellfun(@(x) x.*[1 1 0.5 0.5], pos, 'uni',0);
for ia = 1:4
    annotation(hf, 'textbox', dim{ia}, 'String', num2str(ia,'test%d'), 'vert', 'bottom', 'FitBoxToText','on');
end

This is because the axis position reflects the full potential position of the axis, rather than the space actually taken up once data aspect and plot box ratios are adjusted. I wrote a function, called plotboxpos.m, that calculates the actual space taken up by a 2D axis. If you substitute that in place of position, you can now align your annotation boxes where you want them:

hf = figure;
for ia = 1:4
    ha(ia) = subplot(2,2,ia);
end
arrayfun(@(x) pbaspect(x, [1 1 1]), ha);
drawnow;
pos = arrayfun(@plotboxpos, ha, 'uni', 0);
dim = cellfun(@(x) x.*[1 1 0.5 0.5], pos, 'uni',0);
for ia = 1:4
    annotation(hf, 'textbox',  dim{ia}, 'String', num2str(ia,'test%d'), 'vert', 'bottom', 'FitBoxToText','on');
end

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