title

Add title

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Syntax

title(txt)

title(target,txt)

title(___,Name,Value)

t = title(___)

Description

example

title(txt) adds the specified title to the axes or chart returned by the gca command. Reissuing the title command causes the new title to replace the old title.

example

title(target,txt) adds the title to the specified target object.

example

title(___,Name,Value) modifies the title appearance using one or more name-value pair arguments. For example, 'FontSize',12 sets the font size to 12 points. Specify name-value pair arguments after all other input arguments. Modifying the title appearance is not supported for all types of charts.

example

t = title(___) returns the object used for the title. Use t to make future modifications to the title.

Examples

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Add Title to Current Axes

Open Live Script

Create a figure and display a title in the current axes.

plot((1:10).^2)
title('My Title')

You also can call title with a function that returns text. For example, the date function returns text with today's date.

title(date)

MATLAB® sets the output of date as the axes title.

Include Variable's Value in Title

Open Live Script

Include the value of variable c in a title.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
f = 70;
c = (f-32)/1.8;
title(['Temperature is ',num2str(c),' C'])

Create Multicolored Title Using TeX Markup

Open Live Script

Use the color modifier \color to change the color of characters following it from the previous color.

plot((1:10).^2)
title(['\fontsize{16}black {\color{magenta}magenta '...
'\color[rgb]{0 .5 .5}teal \color{red}red} black again'])

Create Colored Title Using Name,Value Pair Argument

Open Live Script

Use the Name,Value pair 'Color','m' to set the color of the title to magenta.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('Case number # 3','Color', 'm')

Include Greek Symbols in Title

Open Live Script

Use TeX markup to include Greek symbols in a title.

t = (0:0.01:0.2);
y = exp(-25*t);
figure
plot(t,y)
title('y = \ite^{\lambda t}','Color','b')

The 'Interpreter' property must be 'tex' (the default).

Include Superscript or Subscript Character in Title

Open Live Script

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('\alpha^2 and X_1')

The superscript character, "^", and the subscript character, "_", modify the character or substring defined in braces immediately following.

Create Multiline Title

Open Live Script

Create a multiline title using a multiline cell array.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title({'First line';'Second line'})

Display Text As Typed

Open Live Script

Set the Interpreter property as 'none' so that the text X_1 is displayed in the figure as typed, without making 1 a subscript of X.

plot((1:10).^2)
title('X_1','Interpreter','none')

Add Title to Specific Axes

Open Live Script

Starting in R2019b, you can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 2-by-1 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Then plot data into each axes.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
plot(ax1,(1:10).^2)
ax2 = nexttile;
plot(ax2,(1:10).^3)

Add a title to each axes by passing ax1 and ax2 to the title function.

title(ax1,'Top Plot')
title(ax2,'Bottom Plot')

Add Title and Return Text Handle

Open Live Script

Add a title to a plot and return the text object.

plot((1:10).^2)
t = title('My Title');

Set the color of the title to red. Use dot notation to set properties.

t.Color = 'red';

Input Arguments

collapse all

`txt` — Text to display as title
string scalar | character vector | character array | cell array | categorical array | numeric value

Text to display as title, specified as a string scalar, character vector, string array, character array, cell array, categorical array, or numeric value.

Example: 'my label'

Example: {'first line','second line'}

Example: 123

To include numeric variables with text in a title, use the num2str function. For example:

x = 42;
str = ['The value is ',num2str(x)];

To include special characters, such as superscripts, subscripts, Greek letters, or mathematical symbols, use TeX markup. For a list of supported markup, see the Interpreter property.

To create multiline titles:

Use a string array where each element contains a line of text, such as ["first line", "second line"].
Use a cell array where each cell contains a line of text, such as {'first line','second line'}.
Use a character array where each row contains a line of text, such as ['abc'; 'ab ']. If you use this technique, each row must have the same number of characters.
Use sprintf to create a character vector with a new line character, such as sprintf('first line \n second line').

Numeric titles are converted to text using sprintf('%g',value). For example, 12345678 displays as 1.23457e+07.

Note

If you specify the label as a categorical array, MATLAB^® uses the values in the array, not the categories.
The words default, factory, and remove are reserved words that will not appear in a title when quoted as a normal character vector. To display any of these words individually, precede them with a backslash, such as '\default' or '\remove'.

`target` — Target for title
axes | legend | tiled chart layout | chart | array of objects

Target for the title, specified as one of the following:

Any type of axes: an Axes, PolarAxes, or GeographicAxes object.
A Legend object.
A TiledChartLayout object.
A chart object that has a Title property. For example, you can add a title to a HeatmapChart object.
An array of graphics objects from the preceding list. The objects must belong to the same class. To determine the class, use the class function.

If you do not specify the target for the title, then the title function adds the title to the graphics object returned by the gca command.

Note

Some charts do not support modifying the title appearance, such as the color, or returning the text object as an output argument.

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside quotes. You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: 'Color','red','FontSize',14 adds a title with red, 14-point font.

In addition to the following, you can specify other text object properties using Name,Value pair arguments. See Text Properties.

`'FontSize'` — Font size
`11` (default) | scalar value greater than 0

Font size, specified as a scalar value greater than 0 in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. To change the font units, use the FontUnits property.

If you add a title to an axes object, then the font size properties for the axes also affect the title font size. The title font size updates to equal the axes font size multiplied by the title scale factor. The FontSize property of the axes contains the axes font size. The TitleFontSizeMultiplier property of the axes contains the scale factor. By default, the axes font size is 10 points and the scale factor is 1.1, so the title font size is 11 points.

`'FontWeight'` — Thickness of text characters
`'bold'` (default) | `'normal'`

Thickness of the text characters, specified as one of these values:

'bold' — Thicker characters outlines than normal
'normal' — Normal weight as defined by the particular font

MATLAB uses the FontWeight property to select a font from those available on your system. Not all fonts have a bold font weight. Therefore, specifying a bold font weight could still result in the normal font weight.

If you add a title to an axes object, then the TitleFontWeight property for the associated axes affects the FontWeight value for the title.

Note

The 'light' and 'demi' font weight values have been removed. Use 'normal' instead.

`'FontName'` — Font name
supported font name | `'FixedWidth'`

Font name, specified as a supported font name or 'FixedWidth'. To display and print text properly, you must choose a font that your system supports. The default font depends on your operating system and locale.

To use a fixed-width font that looks good in any locale, use 'FixedWidth'. The fixed-width font relies on the root FixedWidthFontName property. Setting the root FixedWidthFontName property causes an immediate update of the display to use the new font.

`'Color'` — Text color
`[0 0 0]` (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | `'r'` | `'g'` | `'b'` | ...

Text color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default value of [0 0 0] corresponds to black.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].
A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes '#FF8800', '#ff8800', '#F80', and '#f80' are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
`'red'`	`'r'`	`[1 0 0]`	`'#FF0000'`
`'green'`	`'g'`	`[0 1 0]`	`'#00FF00'`
`'blue'`	`'b'`	`[0 0 1]`	`'#0000FF'`
`'cyan'`	`'c'`	`[0 1 1]`	`'#00FFFF'`
`'magenta'`	`'m'`	`[1 0 1]`	`'#FF00FF'`
`'yellow'`	`'y'`	`[1 1 0]`	`'#FFFF00'`
`'black'`	`'k'`	`[0 0 0]`	`'#000000'`
`'white'`	`'w'`	`[1 1 1]`	`'#FFFFFF'`
`'none'`	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	No color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]`	`'#0072BD'`
`[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]`	`'#D95319'`
`[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]`	`'#EDB120'`
`[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]`	`'#7E2F8E'`
`[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]`	`'#77AC30'`
`[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]`	`'#4DBEEE'`
`[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]`	`'#A2142F'`

Example: 'blue'

Example: [0 0 1]

Example: '#0000FF'

`'Interpreter'` — Text interpreter
`'tex'` (default) | `'latex'` | `'none'`

Text interpreter, specified as one of these values:

'tex' — Interpret characters using a subset of TeX markup.
'latex' — Interpret characters using LaTeX markup.
'none' — Display literal characters.

TeX Markup

By default, MATLAB supports a subset of TeX markup. Use TeX markup to add superscripts and subscripts, modify the font type and color, and include special characters in the text.

Modifiers remain in effect until the end of the text. Superscripts and subscripts are an exception because they modify only the next character or the characters within the curly braces. When you set the interpreter to 'tex', the supported modifiers are as follows.

Modifier	Description	Example
`^{ }`	Superscript	`'text^{superscript}'`
`_{ }`	Subscript	`'text_{subscript}'`
`\bf`	Bold font	`'\bf text'`
`\it`	Italic font	`'\it text'`
`\sl`	Oblique font (usually the same as italic font)	`'\sl text'`
`\rm`	Normal font	`'\rm text'`
`\fontname{specifier}`	Font name — Replace `specifier` with the name of a font family. You can use this in combination with other modifiers.	`'\fontname{Courier} text'`
`\fontsize{specifier}`	Font size —Replace `specifier` with a numeric scalar value in point units.	`'\fontsize{15} text'`
`\color{specifier}`	Font color — Replace `specifier` with one of these colors: `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `magenta`, `blue`, `black`, `white`, `gray`, `darkGreen`, `orange`, or `lightBlue`.	`'\color{magenta} text'`
`\color[rgb]{specifier}`	Custom font color — Replace `specifier` with a three-element RGB triplet.	`'\color[rgb]{0,0.5,0.5} text'`

This table lists the supported special characters for the 'tex' interpreter.

Character Sequence	Symbol	Character Sequence	Symbol	Character Sequence	Symbol
`\alpha`	α	`\upsilon`	υ	`\sim`	~
`\angle`	∠	`\phi`		`\leq`	≤
`\ast`	`*`	`\chi`	χ	`\infty`	∞
`\beta`	β	`\psi`	ψ	`\clubsuit`	♣
`\gamma`	γ	`\omega`	ω	`\diamondsuit`	♦
`\delta`	δ	`\Gamma`	Γ	`\heartsuit`	♥
`\epsilon`	ϵ	`\Delta`	Δ	`\spadesuit`	♠
`\zeta`	ζ	`\Theta`	Θ	`\leftrightarrow`	↔
`\eta`	η	`\Lambda`	Λ	`\leftarrow`	←
`\theta`	θ	`\Xi`	Ξ	`\Leftarrow`	⇐
`\vartheta`	ϑ	`\Pi`	Π	`\uparrow`	↑
`\iota`	ι	`\Sigma`	Σ	`\rightarrow`	→
`\kappa`	κ	`\Upsilon`	ϒ	`\Rightarrow`	⇒
`\lambda`	λ	`\Phi`	Φ	`\downarrow`	↓
`\mu`	µ	`\Psi`	Ψ	`\circ`	º
`\nu`	ν	`\Omega`	Ω	`\pm`	±
`\xi`	ξ	`\forall`	∀	`\geq`	≥
`\pi`	π	`\exists`	∃	`\propto`	∝
`\rho`	ρ	`\ni`	∍	`\partial`	∂
`\sigma`	σ	`\cong`	≅	`\bullet`	•
`\varsigma`	ς	`\approx`	≈	`\div`	÷
`\tau`	τ	`\Re`	ℜ	`\neq`	≠
`\equiv`	≡	`\oplus`	⊕	`\aleph`	ℵ
`\Im`	ℑ	`\cup`	∪	`\wp`	℘
`\otimes`	⊗	`\subseteq`	⊆	`\oslash`	∅
`\cap`	∩	`\in`	∈	`\supseteq`	⊇
`\supset`	⊃	`\lceil`	⌈	`\subset`	⊂
`\int`	∫	`\cdot`	·	`\o`	ο
`\rfloor`	⌋	`\neg`	¬	`\nabla`	∇
`\lfloor`	⌊	`\times`	x	`\ldots`	...
`\perp`	⊥	`\surd`	√	`\prime`	´
`\wedge`	∧	`\varpi`	ϖ	`\0`	∅
`\rceil`	⌉	`\rangle`	〉	`\mid`	\|
`\vee`	∨	`\langle`	〈	`\copyright`	©

LaTeX Markup

To use LaTeX markup, set the interpreter to 'latex'. Use dollar symbols around the text, for example, use '$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$' for inline mode or '$$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$$' for display mode.

The displayed text uses the default LaTeX font style. The FontName, FontWeight, and FontAngle properties do not have an effect. To change the font style, use LaTeX markup.

The maximum size of the text that you can use with the LaTeX interpreter is 1200 characters. For multiline text, this reduces by about 10 characters per line.

For more information about the LaTeX system, see The LaTeX Project website at https://www.latex-project.org/.

Output Arguments

collapse all

`t` — Object used for title text
text object

Object used for the title text, returned as one of these types of objects:

Text object — If you add a title to axes, then title returns a text object. Use this text object to access and modify properties of the title after it is created. For a list of text object properties, see Text Properties. You also can access the title through the Title property of the axes object.
Legend text object — If you add a title to a legend, then title returns a legend text object. Use this legend text object to access and modify properties of the title after it is created. For a list of legend text object properties, see Text Properties. You also can access the title through the Title property of the legend object.

Documentation

title

Syntax

Description

Examples

Add Title to Current Axes

Include Variable's Value in Title

Create Multicolored Title Using TeX Markup

Create Colored Title Using Name,Value Pair Argument

Include Greek Symbols in Title

Include Superscript or Subscript Character in Title

Create Multiline Title

Display Text As Typed

Add Title to Specific Axes

Add Title and Return Text Handle

Input Arguments

`txt` — Text to display as title
string scalar | character vector | character array | cell array | categorical array | numeric value

Note

`target` — Target for title
axes | legend | tiled chart layout | chart | array of objects

Note

Name-Value Pair Arguments

`'FontSize'` — Font size
`11` (default) | scalar value greater than 0

`'FontWeight'` — Thickness of text characters
`'bold'` (default) | `'normal'`

Note

`'FontName'` — Font name
supported font name | `'FixedWidth'`

`'Color'` — Text color
`[0 0 0]` (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | `'r'` | `'g'` | `'b'` | ...

`'Interpreter'` — Text interpreter
`'tex'` (default) | `'latex'` | `'none'`

TeX Markup

LaTeX Markup

Output Arguments

`t` — Object used for title text
text object

See Also

Functions

Properties

Topics

Introduced before R2006a

MATLAB Documentation

Support

Documentation

title

Syntax

Description

Examples

Add Title to Current Axes

Include Variable's Value in Title

Create Multicolored Title Using TeX Markup

Create Colored Title Using Name,Value Pair Argument

Include Greek Symbols in Title

Include Superscript or Subscript Character in Title

Create Multiline Title

Display Text As Typed

Add Title to Specific Axes

Add Title and Return Text Handle

Input Arguments

txt — Text to display as title string scalar | character vector | character array | cell array | categorical array | numeric value

Note

target — Target for title axes | legend | tiled chart layout | chart | array of objects

Note

Name-Value Pair Arguments

'FontSize' — Font size 11 (default) | scalar value greater than 0

'FontWeight' — Thickness of text characters 'bold' (default) | 'normal'

Note

'FontName' — Font name supported font name | 'FixedWidth'

'Color' — Text color [0 0 0] (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

'Interpreter' — Text interpreter 'tex' (default) | 'latex' | 'none'

TeX Markup

LaTeX Markup

Output Arguments

t — Object used for title text text object

See Also

Functions

Properties

Topics

Introduced before R2006a

MATLAB Documentation

Support

`txt` — Text to display as title
string scalar | character vector | character array | cell array | categorical array | numeric value

`target` — Target for title
axes | legend | tiled chart layout | chart | array of objects

`'FontSize'` — Font size
`11` (default) | scalar value greater than 0

`'FontWeight'` — Thickness of text characters
`'bold'` (default) | `'normal'`

`'FontName'` — Font name
supported font name | `'FixedWidth'`

`'Color'` — Text color
`[0 0 0]` (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | `'r'` | `'g'` | `'b'` | ...

`'Interpreter'` — Text interpreter
`'tex'` (default) | `'latex'` | `'none'`

`t` — Object used for title text
text object