How to properly scale a TikZ/PGF picture which has a `\begin{axis}...\end{axis}`

Question

Applying a scale option to a TikZ picture works great. It keeps the text the proper size and scales everything else. I would like to have the same behavior when using a \begin{axis}...\end{axis}.

Consider the following in which the first graphic does not use the {axis} environment. Changing the scale works great. However, try changing the scale option of the second \begin{tikzpicture} to scale=1.5. This has the effect that the x and y axis labels are moved far away form the axis.

Furthermore, I can see no apparent change in the scale option applied to \begin{axis}. I don't see any error messages complaining about it, so it must be a valid option.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.0]
\draw [->][gray, thin](-3,0) -- (3,0)
    node[blue, right] {$x$}; 

\draw [->][gray, thin] (0,-3) -- (0,3)
    node[blue, above] {$y$};
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.0]
\begin{axis}[scale=1.5 % Has no effect
    minor tick num=0, 
    axis y line=center, 
    axis x line=middle, 
    xmin=-3,
    xmax=3, 
    ymin=-3,
    ymax=3,
    xlabel=$x$,
    ylabel=$y$
    ]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Also, one other minor nit-pick now that I posted this: How do I got about getting the x,y labels within {axis} to be to the right and on top as in the first example?

Answer 1

In order to adjust the size of a plot without changing the text size, you should use the width and height options. There is no scale option for this, unfortunately: You'll have to multiply the width and height yourself.

The development version contains the options x post scale and y post scale (which are marked EXPERIMENTAL in the source code, but seem to work fine). This will in effect increase the width and height of the plot, so it's not really just scaled: Depending on whether you increase or decrease the size of the plot, you will get more or less tick lines. This is a sensible thing, I believe, but maybe not what you need?

To install the development version using TeXLive, you can use the command sudo -i tlmgr update pgfplots --repository http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2010

You can then define a new scale style that sets all post scale options to the same value simultaneously:

\pgfkeys{/pgfplots/scale/.style={
  x post scale=#1,
  y post scale=#1,
  z post scale=#1}
}

In order to place the x label and y label at the ends of the axes, you can use the following options:

xlabel style={at={(current axis.right of origin)}, xshift=1.5ex, anchor=center},
ylabel style={at={(current axis.above origin)}, yshift=1.5ex, anchor=center}

Here's a complete example:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}
\pgfkeys{/pgfplots/scale/.style={
  x post scale=#1,
  y post scale=#1,
  z post scale=#1}
}

\pgfkeys{/pgfplots/axis labels at tip/.style={
    xlabel style={at={(current axis.right of origin)}, xshift=1.5ex, anchor=center},
    ylabel style={at={(current axis.above origin)}, yshift=1.5ex, anchor=center}}
}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    axis y line=center, axis x line=middle, xmin=-3, xmax=3, ymin=-3, ymax=3, xlabel=$x$,ylabel=$y$,
    axis labels at tip
    ]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    scale=0.6,
    axis y line=center, axis x line=middle, xmin=-3, xmax=3, ymin=-3, ymax=3, xlabel=$x$,ylabel=$y$,
    axis labels at tip
    ]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}