# Tick direction in Makie

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** plotting, makie\
**Created:** [January 19, 2022, 9:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856 "2022-01-19T09:00:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![garrek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/garrek/32/27937_2.png) [@garrek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/garrek)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 9:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/1 "2022-01-19T09:00:46Z")

</div>

Is there a way to change the tick direction? The default is that ticks are outside the axes. I would like them to be inside, but I cannot seem to find anything about this in the documentation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lazarusA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lazarusa/32/6571_2.png) [@lazarusA](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lazarusA)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 9:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/2 "2022-01-19T09:20:54Z")

</div>

`xtickalign=1`

here, an example with both cases, Out and In.

[https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/ScattersLines/Fig2Lines/](https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/ScattersLines/Fig2Lines/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![garrek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/garrek/32/27937_2.png) [@garrek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/garrek)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 9:32am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/3 "2022-01-19T09:32:14Z")

</div>

Thank you! I had mistakenly thought `tickalign` referred to rotation of the ticks somehow.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/4 "2022-01-19T12:33:34Z")

</div>

I should add a visual example in the docs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![garrek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/garrek/32/27937_2.png) [@garrek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/garrek)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/5 "2022-01-19T13:20:29Z")

</div>

That would be nice a nice addition. It’s also not clear whether `xtickalign=1` means it will be outside or inside and what value explicitly makes it outside (I assume `0`). And is there a middle (sticking both inside and outside the axis)?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/6 "2022-01-19T14:49:31Z")

</div>

It’s written here [https://makie.juliaplots.org/stable/documentation/api\_reference/#Axis](https://makie.juliaplots.org/stable/documentation/api_reference/#Axis), and yeah you could use 0.5 and it would be in and out

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![70Gage70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/e68b1a/32.png) [@70Gage70](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/70Gage70)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/7 "2024-04-19T19:25:17Z")

</div>

I’m from the future, this thread is a top search result, and both of these links don’t work any more (c.f. [XKCD:979](https://xkcd.com/979/), but not quite as dramatic 🙂)

> [@lazarusA](#):
>
> [https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/ScattersLines/Fig2Lines/](https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/ScattersLines/Fig2Lines/)

> [@jules](#):
>
> [https://makie.juliaplots.org/stable/documentation/api\_reference/#Axis](https://makie.juliaplots.org/stable/documentation/api_reference/#Axis)

Anyway, here’s a mwe for “inner ticks with labels,”

```julia
using CairoMakie

fig = Figure()
ax = Axis(
    fig[1, 1], 
    limits = (-10, 10, -5, 5), 
    xticks = [-3, 0, 3], 
    xtickalign = 1.0,
    xticklabelpad = -25
)

save("inner_ticks.png", fig)

```

 ![inner_ticks](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/d/5/d5a40e26d8baf91be0ea29fdf341d5832935d417.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![garrek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/garrek/32/27937_2.png) [@garrek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/garrek)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/tick-direction-in-makie/74856/8 "2024-04-19T22:00:03Z")

</div>

Thank you for updating this post. I’ve made your reply the new Solution.

Here is an updated link to the documentation for tick alignment.

## `xtickalign` docs

[https://docs.makie.org/stable/reference/blocks/axis/#xtickalign](https://docs.makie.org/stable/reference/blocks/axis/#xtickalign)

## Axis documentation (with other info about configuring an `Axis`)

> **[Page Redirection](https://docs.makie.org/stable/reference/blocks/axis/)**