21

Using the groupplots library in pgfplots, how can a title be set for a group of plots? The following code (basically from the manual) is an example layout. I don't want each plot to have a title, but rather a title be placed centered on top of the group.

\documentclass[crop,tikz]{standalone}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{groupplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{groupplot}[
    group style={
      {group size=2 by 2}},
    height=3cm,width=3cm,
    title={Title}]

    \nextgroupplot
    \addplot coordinates {(0,0) (1,1) (2,2)};
    \nextgroupplot
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (2,0)};
    \nextgroupplot
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (2,1)};
    \nextgroupplot
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (1,0)};
  \end{groupplot}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

sample groupplot

sappjw
  • 1,013

2 Answers2

30

You can use a TikZ node as a title for a quick solution. 

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usepgfplotslibrary{groupplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{groupplot}[group style={group size=2 by 2},height=3cm,width=3cm]
    \nextgroupplot[title=One]
    \addplot coordinates {(0,0) (1,1) (2,2)};
    \nextgroupplot[title=Two]
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (2,0)};
    \nextgroupplot[title=Three]
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (2,1)};
    \nextgroupplot[title=Four]
    \addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,1) (1,0)};
  \end{groupplot}
\node (title) at ($(group c1r1.center)!0.5!(group c2r1.center)+(0,2cm)$) {THE Title};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

percusse
  • 157,807
  • 8
    Since I don't intend on having individual plot titles, I used \node (title) at ($(group c1r1.north)!0.5!(group c2r1.north)$) [above, yshift=\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/every axis title shift}] to simulate how pgfplots places the title using axis description cs. – sappjw Apr 06 '12 at 18:30
  • @sappjw Yep, that's a neat solution. – percusse Apr 06 '12 at 18:35
  • Could you please explain the meaning of this part? ($(group c1r1.center)!0.5!(group c2r1.center)+(0,2cm)$) Thanks. – codeaviator Dec 11 '16 at 03:25
  • @Cebri It is the calc library syntax. It means find the halfway between center anchors of those given nodes. – percusse Jan 11 '17 at 09:56
4

You can also use the \matrix command to group plots together inside of a single tickzpicture, and add the title to the created tickzpicture:

% Preamble: \pgfplotsset{width=7cm,compat=1.9}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \pgfplotsset{small}
    \matrix {
        \begin{axis}
            \addplot {x};
        \end{axis}
        &
        % differently large labels are aligned automatically:
        \begin{axis}[ylabel={$f(x)=x^2$},ylabel style={font=\Huge}]
            \addplot {x^2};
        \end{axis}
        \\
        %
        \begin{axis}[xlabel=$x$,xlabel style={font=\Huge}]
            \addplot {x^3};
        \end{axis}
        &
        \begin{axis}
            \addplot {x^4};
        \end{axis}
        \\
        };
\end{tikzpicture}

enter image description here

(the title isn't added here but you just need to add it on top of the matrix command) More information about the PGFPLOTS package in the PGFPlot Manual.

Alexandre Willame
  • 332