Creating a white background behind a subplot that is placed over another sublot

Hey guys,

i have produced three plots as subplots with one directly on top of another and the third, an FFT of the plot to the bottom is supposed to overlap both plots (See picture: http://oi46.tinypic.com/2927d68.jpg )

Since the axes of the FFT-plot and their labels are now placed within the other plots and kind of mixing up with them, I'm looking for a solution to place a white background behind the FFT-plot, so the axes labels are visible more clearly. How would you do that?

Here's my code (it's maybe a bit pedestrian but it does its job)

h=figure;
Ticksh1 = [-0.5e-4 0 0.5e-4];
Ticksh2 = [-0.6e-5 -0.4e-5 -0.2e-5 0 0.2e-5 0.4e-5 0.6e-5 0.8e-5];
Xticks = [-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12];
Achsenh1 = [-3.3 12.5 -1e-4 1e-4];
Achsenh2 = [-3.3 12.5 -0.7e-5 0.9e-5];
Labelsh2 = [-0.06 -0.04 -0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08];
set(h,'units','centimeters');
set(h,'position',[5 5 12 12]);
set(h,'PaperSize',[14 14]);
set(h,'PaperPositionMode','auto');

h2=subplot(2,2,1);
plot(rand(1,10), rand(1,10),'.r','markersize',.5)
axis xy;
box on;
axis(h2,Achsenh2);
set(gca,'YTick',Ticksh2);
set(gca,'XTick',Xticks);
set(gca,'YTickLabel',Labelsh2);
set(gca,'fontsize',8,'fontname','Helvetica', 'XMinorTick','on','YMinorTick','on');
grid

h1=subplot(2,2,2);
plot(rand(1,10), rand(1,10),'.r','markersize',0.5);
set(gca,'YTick',Ticksh1);
set(gca,'XTickLabel',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',Xticks);
set(gca,'fontsize',8,'fontname','Helvetica', 'XMinorTick','on','YMinorTick','on');
axis(h1,Achsenh1);
grid

h3=subplot(2,2,[3 4]);
box on
plot(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),'markersize',5,'Marker','.','MarkerEdgecolor','k');
end
hold off
xlabel('\nu in THz','FontSize',11)
ylabel('|Y(\nu)|','FontSize',11)
axis xy;
axis(h3,[0 5 0 1.8e-6]);
text(2.5,1.8e-6,'\bfFFT','FontSize',13, 'BackgroundColor',[1 1 1]);

set(h2,'position',[0.15 0.1 0.75 0.5]);
set(h1,'position',[0.15 0.6 0.75 0.24]);
set(h3,'position',[0.55 0.5 0.35 0.2]);placed 
xlabel(h2,'Delay in ps','FontSize',11);
ylabel(h1,'\DeltaR/R_0','FontSize',11);
ylabel(h2,'\DeltaR/R_0','FontSize',11);
grid
print(gcf, 'plot', '-depsc');

EDIT: Made code executable with rand(1,10) as plot variables

Answer 1

[Matt Fig]

I would simply use a UIPANEL. Here is some code that will run, based on your code. Note the last three lines:

h=figure;
Ticksh1 = [-0.5e-4 0 0.5e-4];
Ticksh2 = [-0.6e-5 -0.4e-5 -0.2e-5 0 0.2e-5 0.4e-5 0.6e-5 0.8e-5];
Xticks = [-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12];
Achsenh1 = [-3.3 12.5 -1e-4 1e-4];
Achsenh2 = [-3.3 12.5 -0.7e-5 0.9e-5];
Labelsh2 = [-0.06 -0.04 -0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08];
set(h,'units','centimeters');
set(h,'position',[5 5 12 12]);
set(h,'PaperSize',[14 14]);
set(h,'PaperPositionMode','auto');

h2=subplot(2,2,1);
plot(rand(1,10), rand(1,10),'.r','markersize',.5)
axis xy;
box on;
axis(h2,Achsenh2);
set(gca,'YTick',Ticksh2);
set(gca,'XTick',Xticks);
set(gca,'YTickLabel',Labelsh2);
set(gca,'fontsize',8,'fontname','Helvetica', 'XMinorTick','on','YMinorTick','on');
grid

h1=subplot(2,2,2);
plot(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),'.r','markersize',0.5);
set(gca,'YTick',Ticksh1);
set(gca,'XTickLabel',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',Xticks);
set(gca,'fontsize',8,'fontname','Helvetica', 'XMinorTick','on','YMinorTick','on');
axis(h1,Achsenh1);
grid

h3=subplot(2,2,[3 4]);
box on
plot(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),'markersize',5,'Marker','.','MarkerEdgecolor','k');

hold off
xlabel('\nu in THz','FontSize',11)
ylabel('|Y(\nu)|','FontSize',11)
axis xy;
axis(h3,[0 5 0 1.8e-6]);
text(2.5,1.8e-6,'\bfFFT','FontSize',13, 'BackgroundColor',[1 1 1]);

set(h2,'position',[0.15 0.1 0.75 0.5]);
set(h1,'position',[0.15 0.6 0.75 0.24]);
set(h3,'position',[0.55 0.5 0.35 0.2]);
xlabel(h2,'Delay in ps','FontSize',11);
ylabel(h1,'\DeltaR/R_0','FontSize',11);
ylabel(h2,'\DeltaR/R_0','FontSize',11);
grid
% print(gcf, 'plot', '-depsc');

U = uipanel('backgroundcolor','w','pos',get(gca,'outerpos'));
CH = get(gcf,'children');
set(gcf,'children',CH([2 1 3 4]))

[Jörn]

Needs a bit of adjustment, but this does the trick. Thank you very much!