text

Simple textbox example:

clf
text(1,1,'hello world')

Figure 1. Simple text example

text example with alignment properties:

clf;
scatter(1, 1);
t = text(1,1,'hello world', 'horizontalalignment','center', 'verticalalignment', 'top');

Figure 2. Text with horizontal and vertical alignment properties set

In 2D plots the property 'attached' may be used to control whether the text box will be connected to its origin point. By default 'attached' is 'on'. Example:

clf;
plot([4 6 2 8], '-o');
% Both boxes can be moved by mouse click and drag
% The attached text box is connected to the point by a line
t = text(2, 6,'Text box attached to (2,6)');
t = text(3, 5,'Free text box','attached','off');
          

Figure 3. Attached property example

text example in a 3D plot:

clf;
x=[0:0.2:2*pi];
y=x;
z=sin(x')*cos(y);
s=surf(x, y, z);
t = text(10,90,'hello world');

Figure 4. Text in 3D plot

text pointing on a 3D point example:

clf;
x=[0:0.2:2*pi];
y=x;
z=sin(x')*cos(y);
s=surf(x, y, z);
t = text(3.2,4.6,1,'Point 1');

Figure 5. Text on 3D point

In 2D plots the category index is used to set the x position of a text box for vertical bars or the y position for horizontal bars:

clf;
X = [25 50 75 100 125 180];
bar(10:15, X);
text(1:length(X), X, strsplit(num2str(X)), 'horizontalalignment', 'center', 'verticalalignment', 'top');
text(2.5, 150, 'Point (2.5, 150)')

figure;
bar(10:15, X);
set(gca, 'barorientation', 'horizontal');
text(X, 1:length(X), strsplit(num2str(X)), 'horizontalalignment', 'left', 'verticalalignment', 'middle');
text(150, 2.5,'Point (150, 2.5)')

Figure 6. Text on vertical bar plot

Figure 7. Text on horizontal bar plot

Multi-line text can be set by using '\n' or a cell array of strings:

clf;
x = [0:0.1:2*pi];
plot(x, cos(x));
% 2 lines using '\n'
text(1,0.4,'Line 1\nLine 2');
% 2 lines using cell input
text(5,0.4,{'Line 1', 'Line 2'});

Figure 8. Multi-line text

Add many multi-line text boxes at once:

clf;
x = [0:0.1:2*pi];
plot(x, cos(x));
text([1 3 5],[0.6 0.4 0.2],{{'Text 1', 'Line 2'}, {'Text 2','Line 2'}, {'Text 3','Line 2'}});

Figure 9. Add many text boxes with multi-line text

'tex' interpreter is supported in 2D plots:

clf;
a = 2;
b = 4;
x = -10:0.1:10;
y1 = a*x+b;
y2 = a*x.^2+b;
y3 = a.*sqrt(abs(x))+b;
plot(x,[y1;y2;y3])
axis([-10 10 -1 20])
legend({'y1','y2','y3'});

text(-8, 18, {'a = 2', 'b = 4'})
text(6, 14,'$y1=ax+b$','interpreter','tex','color','b');
text(-2, 17,'$y2=ax^2+b$','interpreter','tex','color',[0,123,0]);
text(-8, 10,'$y3=a\sqrt{\left|x\right|}+b$','interpreter','tex','color','r');

Figure 10. Use 'tex' interpreter