Adjust size and position of a PGFplots plot

Question

I created a 2x2 array where each box contains a subfigure. For three subplots I use \addplot3 from PGFplots with colorbar and in the other, a \addplot. Due to the use of colorbar, the symmetry of the four subfigures is broken. I would like to know if there is a way to rescale the unique plot such that it will align to the other 3 subfigures with colorbar.

Here is an example of my code:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{patchplots,colormaps}

\usepackage{subfigure}
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}

\begin{document}
\subsection{First subsection}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\hspace{-0.5cm}
\begin{tabular}{C{.48\textwidth}C{.48\textwidth}}
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 1] {
 \resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
  \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               y filter/.code=\pgfmathparse{\pgfmathresult/400}, %
               colormap/autumn, %
               colorbar, %
               xmin=0, %
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
              xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2}, %
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
}} & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 2 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 2] {
 \resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool,
       colorbar,
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2}, %
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
}} \\
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 3] {
 \resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[tiny,
       xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
       height=5.2cm, width=6cm,% improve scaling manually
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
       only marks, %
       mark size=0.1pt, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2}, 
      ]
   \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
 }} & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 4 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 4] {
 \resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool, %
       colorbar, %                   
       xmin=0, %
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
}} \\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Several options}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Here is the result:

Maybe it would be simpler to place the 3rd pgfplot a bit higher:

Answer 1

I would not recommend using \resizebox to get the desired plot size, as this will scale the text as well: Arbitrarily different font sizes on the same page look really unprofessional.

One way to get more precise control over the size of the plots is to use the key scale only axis, which specifies that width and height commands only apply to the axis area without the tick labels, color bars, and titles. Then you can set the width to some appropriate value: If you want each plot to fill half the page width, you'll have to use some value smaller than 0.5\textwidth, as the color bars and labels still need to be accommodated. To get the plots to align nicely, you can pass the options trim axis left, trim axis right to the tikzpicture environment. This specifies that only the actual plot area will be used for positioning the plots.

---

If you want to use horizontal color bars below the plots, you can add the option baseline to the tikzpicture environments. This will align the lower edge of the plots with the text baseline.

---

Code for alignment with vertical color bars:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{patchplots,colormaps}

\usepackage{subfigure}
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\pgfplotsset{
    every axis/.append style={
        scale only axis,
        width=0.25\textwidth,
        xtick={0,0.05,0.1},
    },
    /tikz/every picture/.append style={
        trim axis left,
        trim axis right,
    }
}
\begin{document}
\subsection{First subsection}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\hspace{-0.5cm}
\begin{tabular}{C{.48\textwidth}C{.48\textwidth}}
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 1] {
  \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[
    view={0}{90}, %
    xlabel={$p$}, %
    ylabel={Mean}, %
    title={Mean vs $p$}, %
    y filter/.code=\pgfmathparse{\pgfmathresult/400}, %
    colormap/autumn, %
    colorbar, %
    xmin=0, %
    xmax=0.1, %
    ymin=0, %
    ymax=1, %
    xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 2 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 2] {
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool,
       colorbar, 
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2}, %
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} \\
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 3] {

\begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[
       xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
       only marks, %
       mark size=0.1pt, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
      ]
   \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
 } & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 4 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 4] {
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool, %
       colorbar, %                   
       xmin=0, %
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0,ymax=1, %
       xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} \\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Several options}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

---

Code for alignment with horizontal color bars:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{patchplots,colormaps}

\usepackage{subfigure}
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\pgfplotsset{
    every axis/.append style={
        scale only axis,
        width=0.3\textwidth,height=0.23\textwidth,
        xtick={0,0.05,0.1},
    },
    /tikz/every picture/.append style={
        trim axis left,
        trim axis right,
        baseline
    }
}
\begin{document}
\subsection{First subsection}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\hspace{-0.5cm}
\begin{tabular}{C{.48\textwidth}C{.48\textwidth}}
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 1] {
  \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[
    view={0}{90}, %
    xlabel={$p$}, %
    ylabel={Mean}, %
    title={Mean vs $p$}, %
    y filter/.code=\pgfmathparse{\pgfmathresult/400}, %
    colormap/autumn, %
    colorbar horizontal, %
    xmin=0, %
    xmax=0.1, %
    ymin=0, %
    ymax=1, %
    xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 2 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 2] {
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool,
       colorbar horizontal, 
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2}, %
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} \\
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \subfigure [Subfigure 3] {

\begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[
       xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               xmin=0,%
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0, %
       ymax=1, %
       only marks, %
       mark size=0.1pt, %
               xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
      ]
   \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
 } & 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 4 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subfigure [Subfigure 4] {
 \begin{tikzpicture} %
  \begin{axis}[view={0}{90}, %
               xlabel={$p$}, %
           ylabel={Mean}, %
               title={Mean vs $p$}, %
               colormap/cool, %
       colorbar horizontal, %                   
       xmin=0, %
               xmax=0.1, %
       ymin=0,ymax=1, %
       xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed,precision=2},
              ] %
  \end{axis} %
 \end{tikzpicture}
} \\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Several options}
\end{figure}
\end{document}