Matlab functions for setting tight margins around a figure, and setting the paper size to the figure size

setCrop.m

% setCrop - Adjust paper size to figure size of current figure.
%
% Usage:
%   setCrop()
%
% Notes:
%   Call this function after all plotting commands, after calling
%   "setTightMargins", but before calling "print".
%
% Daniel Weibel <[email protected]> November 2015
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------%

function setCrop()

% Get current figure handle
fig = gcf;

% Synchronise units for screen and paper
fig.Units      = 'centimeters';
fig.PaperUnits = 'centimeters';

% Get width and heigth of figure (in centimeters)
fig_width  = fig.Position(3);
fig_height = fig.Position(4);

% Activate auto-positioning of figure on paper
fig.PaperPositionMode = 'auto';

% Set paper size to figure size
fig.PaperSize = [fig_width, fig_height];

setTightMargins.m

% setTightMargins - Remove or set margins of current figure.
%
% Usage:
%   setTightMargins():  remove all margins completely.
%
%   setTightMagins(mrg):  set margins to "mrg".
%
% Input:
%   mrg:  either a scalar specifying margin (in cm) for all four sides, or
%         a vector of size 4 where mrg(1) specifies "left", mrg(2) "bottom",
%         mrg(3) "top", and mrg(4) "right" margin.
%
% Note:
%   Call this function after all plotting commands and before calling "setCrop"
%   and "print".
%
% Daniel Weibel <[email protected]> November 2015
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------%

function setTightMargins(mrg)

% If the optional argument 'mrg' is specified
if nargin == 1
  if     length(mrg) == 4 my_mrg      = mrg;
  elseif length(mrg) == 1 my_mrg(1:4) = mrg;
  else                    error('Argument 1 must have length 1 or 4.'); end
else
  my_mrg(1:4) = 0;
end

% Get handles of current figure and axes
fig = gcf;  % Current figure handle
ax  = gca;  % Current axes handle

% Synchronise units of figure an axes object
fig.Units = 'centimeters';
ax.Units  = 'centimeters';

% Get minimum margins around plot (as calculated by Matlab)
min_margin_l = ax.TightInset(1);
min_margin_b = ax.TightInset(2);
min_margin_r = ax.TightInset(3);
min_margin_t = ax.TightInset(4);

% Add custom margins from optional argument 'mrg' to the minimum margins
margin_l = min_margin_l + my_mrg(1);
margin_b = min_margin_b + my_mrg(2);
margin_r = min_margin_r + my_mrg(3);
margin_t = min_margin_t + my_mrg(4);

% Get width and height of entire figure (in centimeters)
fig_width  = fig.Position(3);
fig_height = fig.Position(4);

% Set dimensions of axes regions to match custom margins
left   = margin_l;
bottom = margin_b;
width  = fig_width  - margin_l - margin_r;
height = fig_height - margin_b - margin_t;
ax.Position = [left, bottom, width, height];