1

This rendering:

enter image description here

is produced by:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[htb]
\begin{tikzpicture}[trim axis right, trim axis left]
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=-3,   xmax=3,
    ymin=-3,   ymax=3,
    extra x ticks={-1,1},
    extra y ticks={-2,2},
    extra tick style={grid=major},
    xlabel=This is the first text which is this long,
    height=3cm,
    width=\textwidth/2, scale only axis
]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}This is the second text
\end{figure}

\end{document}

How can I trim the bottom of the tikzpicture so that the baseline of the x-axis label is aligned with the baseline of the surrounding text? I'm aware of the [baseline=...] argument to tikzpicture but can't work out how to extract a position from the pgfplot

Note: the actual motivation here is to get a smaller space between the axis label and the figure caption, which the answers here succeed in!

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1 Answer 1

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2

You can set the baseline of the tikzpicture accordingly. 

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[htb]
\begin{tikzpicture}[trim axis right, trim axis left,baseline={(xlabel.base)}]
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=-3,   xmax=3,
    ymin=-3,   ymax=3,
    extra x ticks={-1,1},
    extra y ticks={-2,2},
    extra tick style={grid=major},
    xlabel=This is the first text which is this long,
    xlabel style={alias=xlabel},
    height=3cm,
    width=\textwidth/2, scale only axis
]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}This is the second text
\end{figure}

\end{document}

enter image description here

For automatically generated plots you could do something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\newcounter{myplot}
\tikzset{set baseline/.code={\stepcounter{myplot}
\tikzset{baseline={(xlabel-\number\value{myplot}.base)},
/pgfplots/xlabel style={alias=xlabel-\number\value{myplot}}}
}}
\tikzset{every picture/.append style={set baseline}}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[htb]
\begin{tikzpicture}[trim axis right, trim axis left]
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=-3,   xmax=3,
    ymin=-3,   ymax=3,
    extra x ticks={-1,1},
    extra y ticks={-2,2},
    extra tick style={grid=major},
    xlabel=This is the first text which is this long,
    height=3cm,
    width=\textwidth/2, scale only axis
]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}This is the second text
\end{figure}

\end{document}
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5
  • Wonderful, thanks! Will this work for plots using groupplots too, or will I need something like r1c1.xlabel.base?
    – Eric
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:21
  • Ah, now I see, you've used alias - is there a way to do this without adding the alias? My tikzpicture is generated, and I'd prefer not to have to insert that. Perhaps a hierarchical name of some kind?
    – Eric
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:23
  • @Eric I used xlabel style={alias=xlabel}, to give the node a name. As long as the name you give is unique, it should work. You can use some \pgfplotsset to set these things from outside if you have automatically generated plots. I do not know how you generate them, can you be more specific? In any case, you need to make them unique.
    – user194703
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:23
  • Yep, just realized that - see my above comment.
    – Eric
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:24
  • 1
    @Eric I added a solution that works for automatically generated plots. You do not even have to touch the ambient tikzpictures explicitly.
    – user194703
    Jan 14, 2020 at 0:44

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