# Some questions about \`Plots\`
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649
**Category:** Visualization
**Tags:** question, plots
**Created:** [July 5, 2024, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649 "2024-07-05T09:14:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/1 "2024-07-05T09:14:17Z")
1. How to make the title closer to the figure?
2. How to make the xlabel/ylabel and the tick numbers closer to the axis?
3. In some cases, if I set the size of the combined figure, some of xlables or ylabels near to the border will be covered. Why? How to fix this?
4. ~~How to define and show a customized legend?~~
```julia
using Plots
PLT = []
for i in 1:4
plt = plot(
rand(100);
title="test",
xlabel = "Xlabel",
ylabel = "Ylabel",
size=(300, 300),
)
push!(PLT, plt)
end
plot(PLT..., layout=(2,2); size=(600, 600))
```
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/2 "2024-07-05T11:50:10Z")
> [@WuSiren](#):
>
> - In some cases, if I set the size of the combined figure, some of xlables or ylabels near to the border will be covered. Why? How to fix this?
> - How to define and show a customized legend?
The first is with the `margin` keyword. The second I guess you are looking for the `label` keyword?
```julia-repl
julia> plot([rand(10) rand(10)];
layout=(1,2),
size=(600,600),
label=["abc" "def"],
xlabel="my x label",
ylabel="my y label",
margin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm
)
```
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 11:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/3 "2024-07-05T11:58:57Z")
> [@lmiq](#):
>
> `margin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm`
Thanks, Prof. @lmiq ! The margin keyword is indeed useful, but it make the subfigures scale too small, and the title and the xlabel/ylabel become more far away from the axises.
I really need a method to making the title and xlabel/ylabel more close to the axis, but `Plots` doesn’t seem to support.
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 12:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/4 "2024-07-05T12:09:22Z")
You can use `leftmargin`, `bottommargin`, and `rightmargin` independently, and the result might be better:
```julia-repl
julia> plot(PLT..., layout=(2,2); size=(600, 600),
leftmargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
rightmargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
bottommargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
)
```
The distances of the axis labels to the plots I don’t know how to change, but I don´t see they can be much closer to the axis there without overlapping with the numbers.
I usually play with some combination of margins, size, and the `scalefontsizes` function, to get a reasonable result:
```julia-repl
julia> scalefontsizes(); scalefontsizes(1.5)
julia> plot(PLT..., layout=(2,2); size=(800, 800),
leftmargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
rightmargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
bottommargin=1.0Plots.Measures.cm,
)
```
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/5 "2024-07-05T12:12:21Z")
And you can also set `topmargin` to a negative number to get the title closer to the plot.
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 12:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/6 "2024-07-05T12:22:43Z")
Thanks, Professor! It does work though I can’t think it’s a good experience. 😓
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/7 "2024-07-05T12:26:51Z")
There are other backends (pyplot, pgfplotx, etc) that might do things differently and more to your taste. And of course the Makie option.
Personally, I always find that tuning plot properties requires fiddling around with the details, no matter the tool, and at the end I might even save a SVG and to to Inkscape for fine tuning.
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2024, 12:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/some-questions-about-plots/116649/8 "2024-07-05T12:34:29Z")
Thanks! At least so far, I think `Makie` works better with me.