Create a plot of random data. Capture the axes and return the image data. getframe captures the interior of the axes and the axes outline. It does not capture content that extends beyond the axes outline.

plot(rand(5))
F = getframe;

F is a structure with the field cdata that contains the captured image data.

Display the captured image data using imshow.

figure
imshow(F.cdata)

Create a surface plot. Capture the interior of the figure window, excluding the menu and tool bars.

surf(peaks)
F = getframe(gcf);

F is a structure with the field cdata that contains the captured image data.

Display the captured image data in a figure with a darker background using imshow, so you can see captured area.

figure('Color',[0.5 0.5 0.5])
imshow(F.cdata)

Create a plot of random data.

plot(rand(5))

Change the axes units to pixels and return the current axes position. The third and fourth elements of the position vector specify the axes width and height in pixels.

drawnow
ax = gca;
ax.Units = 'pixels';
pos = ax.Position

pos =

   73.8000   47.2000  434.0000  342.3000

Create a four-element vector, rect, that defines a rectangular area covering the axes plus the desired margin. The first two elements of rect specify the lower left corner of the rectangle relative to the lower left corner of the axes. The last two elements of rect specify the width and height of the rectangle. Reset the axes units to the default value of 'normalized'.

marg = 30;
rect = [-marg, -marg, pos(3)+2*marg, pos(4)+2*marg];
F = getframe(gca,rect);
ax.Units = 'normalized';

Display the captured image data in a figure with a darker background using imshow, so you can see captured area.

figure('Color',[0.5 0.5 0.5])
imshow(F.cdata)

Create a plot with a title and an x-axis label.

plot(rand(5))
xlabel('x values')
title('Plot of Random Data')

Change the axes units to pixels and store the Position and TightInset property values for the axes. The TighInset property is a four-element vector of the form [left bottom right top]. The values are the margins used around the axes for the tick values and text labels.

drawnow
ax = gca;
ax.Units = 'pixels';
pos = ax.Position;
ti = ax.TightInset;

Create a four-element vector, rect, that defines a rectangular area covering the axes plus the automatically calculated margin. The first two elements of rect specify the lower left corner of the rectangle relative to the lower left corner of the axes. The last two elements of rect specify the width and height of the rectangle.

rect = [-ti(1), -ti(2), pos(3)+ti(1)+ti(3), pos(4)+ti(2)+ti(4)];
F = getframe(ax,rect);

Display the captured image data in a figure with a darker background using imshow, so you can see captured area.

figure('Color',[0.5 0.5 0.5])
imshow(F.cdata)

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. Plot a line in each axes.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
plot(1:10,'b')
ax2 = nexttile;
plot(1:10,'r')

Capture the contents of the lower axes. getframe captures the interior and border of the plot. It does not capture tick values or labels that extend beyond the outline of the plot.

F = getframe(ax2);

Display the captured image data using imshow.

figure
imshow(F.cdata)

Record frames of the peaks function vibrating by using  getframe  in a loop. Preallocate an array to store the movie frames.

Z = peaks;
surf(Z)
axis tight manual
ax = gca;
ax.NextPlot = 'replaceChildren';

loops = 40;
F(loops) = struct('cdata',[],'colormap',[]);
for j = 1:loops
    X = sin(j*pi/10)*Z;
    surf(X,Z)
    drawnow
    F(j) = getframe(gcf);
end

Playback the movie two times.

fig = figure;
movie(fig,F,2)