1. CDA6530: How to Plot Experimental Figures in Academic Papers Cliff Zou Fall 2012

2. Course Information
Do not rely on color to distinguish curves (due to black-white printout).
Use different line styles to distinguish curves (solid, dashed, dotted, dash-doted).
Use mark on some curves for further distinguishing. In Matlab, plot(X, Y, ‘b-.o’); use different mark for different curves.
In Matlab, use:
plot(X,Y, ‘r+:’);
b blue point solid
g green o circle : dotted
r red x x-mark dashdot
c cyan plus dashed
m magenta * star (none) no line
y yellow s square
k black d diamond
w white v triangle (down)
^ triangle (up)
< triangle (left)
> triangle (right)
p pentagram
h hexagram

3. Example Problems

4. The curves should not be covered by, e.g., legend.
Make sure your “useful” curves occupy most of the figure’s drawing area. You need to manually change X or Y axis range to do that.
Make sure your figure’s font (label, legend, axis values) are large enough to be readable. Make sure curves are thick enough to be readable.
The curves should not be covered by, e.g., legend.
In Matlab, you can adjust all these directly on matlab figures
Better save all .fig files for later editing

5. Example Problems

6. Example Problems