Re: Controlling axis labels in IDL plots?

[steinhh(at)ulrik.uio.no (Stein Vidar Hagfors Haugan)]

In article <MPG.135ee234b9aa2a5989acb@news.frii.com> 
davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) writes:
>
> Rachel Howe (rhowe@noao.edu) writes:
[..]
> > Does anyone know how the distance of the axis label from the axis is
> > determined in a single-panel 2d plot?
> > There doesn't seem to be any way to control it directly, but it must be 
> > some arcane function of the plot area, position/margin settings, and 
> > character size. If anyone knows an algorithm, I'd be delighted to hear
> > it.
> > Or would it be easier to give up and just use 
> > XYOUTS to put the annotations where I want them?
>
> Ooohh, someone as anal as I am about the looks of things! 
> Thank goodness, I had just about abandoned all hope. :-)

I guess you're entitled to be a little bit "anal" if your plots are
appearing in the journal Science... See the first Report listed on
this page: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol287/issue5462/

What's your excuse, David?

Anyway, seems like Liam's suggestion is the best one can do without
using XYOUTS. Note that prepending a "!C" on the Y axis title will
push the text towards the axis, and likewise prepending one for the
X axis title will push it down.


Stein Vidar