2.10.5 Labeling Two-Dimensional Graphics
| Axes -> True | give a pair of axes | | GridLines -> Automatic | draw grid lines on the plot | | Frame -> True | put axes on a frame around the plot | | PlotLabel -> "text" | give an overall label for the plot |
Ways to label two-dimensional plots. | Here is a plot, using the default Axes -> True. | |
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bp = Plot[BesselJ[2, x], {x, 0, 10}]
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| Setting Frame -> True generates a frame with axes, and removes tick marks from the ordinary axes. | |
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Show[bp, Frame -> True]
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| This includes grid lines, which are shown in light blue on color displays. | |
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Show[%, GridLines -> Automatic]
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| Axes -> False | draw no axes | | Axes -> True | draw both  and  axes | | Axes -> {False, True} | draw a  axis but no  axis | | AxesOrigin -> Automatic | choose the crossing point for the axes automatically | | AxesOrigin -> {x, y} | specify the crossing point | | AxesStyle -> style | specify the style for axes | | AxesStyle -> {{xstyle}, {ystyle}} | specify individual styles for axes | | AxesLabel -> None | give no axis labels | | AxesLabel -> ylabel | put a label on the  axis | | AxesLabel -> {xlabel, ylabel} | put labels on both  and  axes |
Options for axes. | This makes the axes cross at the point {5, 0}, and puts a label on each axis. | |
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Show[bp, AxesOrigin->{5, 0}, AxesLabel->{"x", "y"}]
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| Ticks -> None | draw no tick marks | | Ticks -> Automatic | place tick marks automatically | | Ticks -> {xticks, yticks} | tick mark specifications for each axis |
Settings for the Ticks option. With the default setting Ticks -> Automatic, Mathematica creates a certain number of major and minor tick marks, and places them on axes at positions which yield the minimum number of decimal digits in the tick labels. In some cases, however, you may want to specify the positions and properties of tick marks explicitly. You will need to do this, for example, if you want to have tick marks at multiples of  , or if you want to put a nonlinear scale on an axis.
| None | draw no tick marks | | Automatic | place tick marks automatically | { ,  , ... } | draw tick marks at the specified positions | {{ ,  }, { ,  }, ... } | draw tick marks with the specified labels | {{ ,  ,  }, ... } | draw tick marks with the specified scaled lengths | {{ ,  , { ,  }}, ... } | draw tick marks with the specified lengths in the positive and negative directions | {{ ,  ,  ,  }, ... } | draw tick marks with the specified styles | | func | a function to be applied to  ,  to get the tick mark option |
Tick mark options for each axis. This gives tick marks at specified positions on the  axis, and chooses the tick marks automatically on the  axis. | |
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Show[bp, Ticks -> {{0, Pi, 2Pi, 3Pi}, Automatic}]
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This adds tick marks with no labels at multiples of  . | |
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Show[bp,
Ticks -> {{0, {Pi/2, ""}, Pi, {3Pi/2, ""},
2Pi, {5Pi/2, ""}, 3Pi}, Automatic}]
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Particularly when you want to create complicated tick mark specifications, it is often convenient to define a "tick mark function" which creates the appropriate tick mark specification given the minimum and maximum values on a particular axis. | This defines a function which gives a list of tick mark positions with a spacing of 1. | |
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units[xmin_, xmax_] :=
Range[Floor[xmin], Floor[xmax], 1]
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This uses the units function to specify tick marks for the  axis. | |
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Show[bp, Ticks -> {units, Automatic}]
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Sometimes you may want to generate tick marks which differ only slightly from those produced automatically with the setting Ticks -> Automatic. You can get the complete specification for tick marks that were generated automatically in a particular plot by using AbsoluteOptions[g, Ticks], as discussed in Section 2.10.1.
| Frame -> False | draw no frame | | Frame -> True | draw a frame around the plot | | FrameStyle -> style | specify a style for the frame |
FrameStyle -> {{xmstyle}, {ymstyle}, ... }
| | specify styles for each edge of the frame | | FrameLabel -> None | give no frame labels | | FrameLabel -> {xmlabel, ymlabel, ... } | put labels on edges of the frame | | RotateLabel -> False | do not rotate text in labels | | FrameTicks -> None | draw no tick marks on frame edges | | FrameTicks -> Automatic | position tick marks automatically |
FrameTicks -> {{xmticks, ymticks, ... }}
| | specify tick marks for frame edges |
Options for frame axes. The Axes option allows you to draw a single pair of axes in a plot. Sometimes, however, you may instead want to show the scales for a plot on a frame, typically drawn around the whole plot. The option Frame allows you effectively to draw four axes, corresponding to the four edges of the frame around a plot. These four axes are ordered clockwise, starting from the one at the bottom. | This draws frame axes, and labels each of them. | |
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Show[bp, Frame -> True,
FrameLabel -> {"label 1", "label 2",
"label 3", "label 4"}]
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| GridLines -> None | draw no grid lines | | GridLines -> Automatic | position grid lines automatically | | GridLines -> {xgrid, ygrid} | specify grid lines in analogy with tick marks |
Options for grid lines. Grid lines in Mathematica work very much like tick marks. As with tick marks, you can specify explicit positions for grid lines. There is no label or length to specify for grid lines. However, you can specify a style. This generates  but not  grid lines. | |
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Show[bp, GridLines -> {Automatic, None}]
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