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# title

Add title to current axes

## Description

example

title(str) adds the title consisting of a string, str, at the top and in the center of the current axes. Reissuing the title command causes the new title to replace the old title.

example

title(str,Name,Value) additionally specifies the title properties using one or more Name,Value pair arguments.

example

title(ax,___) adds the title to the axes specified by ax. This syntax allows you to specify the axes to which to add a title. ax can precede any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.

example

h = title(___) returns the handle to the text object used as the title. The handle is useful when making future modifications to the title.

## Examples

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### Add Title to Current Figure

Create a figure and display a title in the current axes.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('My Title')


You also can call title with a function that returns a string. For example, the date function returns a string containing today's date.

title(date)


MATLAB® sets the output of date as the axes title.

### Include Variable's Value in Title

Include the value of variable c in a title.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
f = 70;
c = (f-32)/1.8;
title(['Temperature is ',num2str(c),' C'])


### Create Multicolored Title Using TeX Markup

In a TeX string, use the color modifier \color to change the color of characters following it from the previous color.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title(['\fontsize{16}black {\color{magenta}magenta '...
'\color[rgb]{0 .5 .5}teal \color{red}red} black again'])


### Create Colored Title Using Name,Value Pair Argument

Use the Name,Value pair 'Color','m' to set the color of the title to magenta.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('Case number # 3','Color', 'm')


### Include Greek Symbols in Title

Use a TeX string to include Greek symbols in a title.

t = (0:0.01:0.2);
y = exp(-25*t);
figure
plot(t,y)
title('y = \ite^{\lambda t}','Color','b')


The 'Interpreter' property must be 'tex' (the default).

### Include Superscript or Subscript Character in Title

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('\alpha^2 and X_1')


The superscript character, "^", and the subscript character, "_", modify the character or substring defined in braces immediately following.

### Create Multiline Title

Create a multiline title using a multiline cell array.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title({'First line';'Second line'})


### Display Text As Typed

Set the Interpreter property as 'none' so that the string X_1 is displayed in the figure as typed, without making 1 a subscript of X.

figure
plot((1:10).^2)
title('X_1','Interpreter','none')


MATLAB® displays the string X_1 in the title of the figure.

### Add Title to Specific Axes

Create two subplots and return the handles to the axes objects, s(1) and s(2).

figure
s(1) = subplot(2,1,1);
plot((1:10).^2)
s(2) = subplot(2,1,2);
plot((1:10).^3)


Add a title to each subplot by referring to its axes handle, s(1), or s(2).

title(s(1),'Top Plot')
title(s(2),'Bottom Plot')


### Add Title and Return Text Handle

Add a title to a plot and return the text object.

plot((1:10).^2)
h = title('My Title');


Set the color of the title to red. Starting in R2014b, you can use dot notation to set properties. If you are using an earlier release, use the set function instead.

h.Color = 'red';


## Input Arguments

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### str — Text to display as titlestring | cell array of strings | padded string matrix

Text to display as the title, specified in one of these forms:

• Single string — For a single line of text. A string is text between single quotes. For example, 'one line'. You can also use a function that returns a string, such as date.

• Numeric value — For a single line of text. For example, 123.

• Cell array — For multiline text. Display each entry in the cell array on a separate line. For example, .

• Padded string matrix — For multiline text or for including a variable in the text. Display each row of the matrix on a separate line. Use spaces to pad the matrix to get equal characters across each row. For example, ['abc','def'; 'a ',' bcd']. To include a variable in the text, use the num2str function. For example, to include variable x in the text, use ['The value is ',num2str(x)].

If the Interpreter property is 'tex' (the default), then you can use a subset of TeX markup embedded in the string. Use TeX markup to add superscripts and subscripts or to include special characters such as Greek letters and mathematical symbols. For a complete list of supported markup, see the Interpreter property.

 Note:   The words default, factory, and remove are reserved words that will not appear in a title when quoted as a normal string. To display any of these words individually, precede them with a backslash, such as '\default' or '\remove'.

### ax — Axes objectaxes object

Axes object. If you do not specify an axes, then the title function uses the current axes.

### Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside single quotes (' '). You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: 'Color','red','FontSize',14 adds a title with red, 14-point font.

In addition to the following, you can specify other text object properties using Name,Value pair arguments. See Text Properties.

### 'FontSize' — Font size11 (default) | scalar value greater than 0

Font size, specified as a scalar value greater than 0 in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. To change the font units, use the FontUnits property.

Setting the font size properties for the associated axes also affects the title font size. The title font size updates to equal the axes font size times the title scale factor. The FontSize property of the axes contains the axes font size. The TitleFontSizeMultiplier property of the axes contains the scale factor. By default, the axes font size is 10 points and the scale factor is 1.1, so the title font size is 11 points.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

### 'FontWeight' — Thickness of text characters'bold' (default) | 'normal'

Thickness of the text characters, specified as one of these values:

• 'bold' — Thicker characters outlines than normal

• 'normal' — Normal weight as defined by the particular font

MATLAB® uses the FontWeight property to select a font from those available on your system. Not all fonts have a bold font weight. Therefore, specifying a bold font weight could still result in the normal font weight.

The TitleFontWeight property for the associated axes affects the FontWeight value for the title.

 Note:   The 'light' and 'demi' font weight values have been removed. Use 'normal' instead.

### 'FontName' — Font name'Helvetica' (default) | 'FixedWidth' | system supported font name

Font name, specified as the name of the font to use or the string 'FixedWidth'. To display and print properly, the font name must be a font that your system supports.

To use a fixed-width font that looks good in any locale, use the case-sensitive string 'FixedWidth'. This eliminates the need to hard-code the name of a fixed-width font, which might not display text properly on systems that do not use ASCII character encoding. The 'FixedWidth' value relies on the root FixedWidthFontName property. Setting the root FixedWidthFontName property causes an immediate update of the display to use the new font.

Example: 'Cambria'

### 'Color' — Text color[0 0 0] (default) | RGB triplet | color string | 'none'

Text color, specified as a three-element RGB triplet, a color string, or 'none'. The default color is black with an RGB triplet value of [0 0 0]. If you set the color to 'none', then the text is invisible.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1], for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7]. This table lists RGB triplet values that have equivalent color strings.

Long NameShort NameRGB Triplet
'yellow''y'[1 1 0]
'magenta''m'[1 0 1]
'cyan''c'[0 1 1]
'red''r'[1 0 0]
'green''g'[0 1 0]
'blue''b'[0 0 1]
'white''w'[1 1 1]
'black'k'[0 0 0]

Example: 'blue'

Example: [0 0 1]

### 'Interpreter' — Interpretation of text characters'tex' (default) | 'latex' | 'none'

Interpretation of text characters, specified as one of these values:

• 'tex' — Interpret text strings using a subset of TeX markup. This is the default value.

• 'latex' — Interpret text strings using LaTeX markup.

• 'none' — Display literal characters.

#### TeX Markup

By default, MATLAB supports a subset of TeX markup. Use TeX markup to add superscripts and subscripts, modify the text type and color, and include special characters in the text string.

This table lists the supported modifiers when the Interpreter property is set to 'tex'. Modifiers remain in effect until the end of the string, except for superscripts and subscripts, which only modify the next character or the text within the curly braces {}.

ModifierDescriptionExample of String
^{ }Superscript'text^{superscript}'
_{ }Subscript'text_{subscript}'
\bfBold font'\bf text'
\itItalic font'\it text'
\slOblique font (usually the same as italic font)'\sl text'
\rmNormal font'\rm text'
\fontname{specifier}Font name — Set specifier as the name of a font family. You can use this in combination with other modifiers.'\fontname{Courier} text'
\fontsize{specifier}Font size — Set specifier as a numeric scalar value to change the font size.'\fontsize{15} text'
\color{specifier}Font color — Set specifer as one of these colors: red, green, yellow, magenta, blue, black, white, gray, darkGreen, orange, or lightBlue.'\color{magenta} text'
\color[rgb]{specifier}Custom font color — Set specifier as a three-element RGB triplet.'\color[rgb]{0,0.5,0.5} text'

This table lists the supported special characters when the interpreter is set to 'tex'.

Character SequenceSymbolCharacter SequenceSymbolCharacter SequenceSymbol

\alpha

α

\upsilon

υ

\sim

~

\angle

\phi

Φ

\leq

\ast

*

\chi

χ

\infty

\beta

β

\psi

ψ

\clubsuit

\gamma

γ

\omega

ω

\diamondsuit

\delta

δ

\Gamma

Γ

\heartsuit

\epsilon

ɛ

\Delta

Δ

\spadesuit

\zeta

ζ

\Theta

Θ

\leftrightarrow

\eta

η

\Lambda

Λ

\leftarrow

\theta

Θ

\Xi

Ξ

\Leftarrow

\vartheta

ϑ

\Pi

Π

\uparrow

\iota

ι

\Sigma

Σ

\rightarrow

\kappa

κ

\Upsilon

ϒ

\Rightarrow

\lambda

λ

\Phi

Φ

\downarrow

\mu

µ

\Psi

Ψ

\circ

º

\nu

ν

\Omega

Ω

\pm

±

\xi

ξ

\forall

\geq

\pi

π

\exists

\propto

\rho

ρ

\ni

\partial

\sigma

σ

\cong

\bullet

\varsigma

ς

\approx

\div

÷

\tau

τ

\Re

\neq

\equiv

\oplus

\aleph

\Im

\cup

\wp

\otimes

\subseteq

\oslash

\cap

\in

\supseteq

\supset

\lceil

\subset

\int

\cdot

·

\o

ο

\rfloor

\neg

¬

\nabla

\lfloor

\times

x

\ldots

...

\perp

\surd

\prime

´

\wedge

\varpi

ϖ

\0

\rceil

\rangle

\mid

|

\vee

\langle

\copyright

©

#### LaTeX Markup

To use LaTeX markup, set the Interpreter property to 'latex'. The displayed text uses the default LaTeX font style. The FontName, FontWeight, and FontAngle properties do not have an effect. To change the font style, use LaTeX markup within the text string.

The maximum size of the string that you can use with the LaTeX interpreter is 1200 characters. For multiline strings, this reduces by about 10 characters per line.

For more information about the LaTeX system, see The LaTeX Project Web site at http://www.latex-project.org/.

## Output Arguments

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### h — Text objectText object

Text object used as the title. Use h to access and modify properties of the title after its created.

## See Also

### Properties

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