Help fixing different sized plots with tiled layout

I am trying to make a 3 x 3 tiled layout of wide rectangles, each of which has a title. However when I try this, (minimal example below) the top three figures appear slightly smaller than the bottom figures. The question is how do we fix this? I am aware that subplot does not have this issue, however subplot has too much white space between the figures for my purposes. Also I know that if I take the titles out, the figures are all the same size, but I need all the titles to be there.

figure(3);
clf

tiledlayout(3,3,"TileSpacing","compact","Padding","compact");
xlims = [-13,3];
ylims = [-3,3];
for ii = 1:9
    to_plot = zeros(410,170);
    
    nexttile
    % subplot(3,3,ii) % Gets rid of the problem, but leaves too much white
    % space.
    ax = gca;
    hold on
    imagesc(xlims,ylims,to_plot,'Interpolation','bilinear')
 
    shading interp;
    colormap("jet")

    title(ax, "$t = " + num2str(ii) + "$",'interpreter','latex','fontsize',15)
    hold off
    axis equal
    axis off
end

[Cris LaPierre]

I also see that. I can get it to go away if I remove either the 'axis equal' or the title. That doesn't seem right, so I have reported it internally.

tiledlayout(3,3,"TileSpacing","compact","Padding","compact");
xlims = [-13,3];
ylims = [-3,3];
for ii = 1:9
    to_plot = zeros(410,170);
    
    nexttile
    imagesc(xlims,ylims,to_plot)

    title("$t = " + num2str(ii) + "$",'interpreter','latex','fontsize',15)
    % axis equal
    axis off
end

[Sabhrant]

Good observation

Answer 1

[Matt J]

Since you use imagesc to generate the subfigures, it seems to me that you should be using axis image.

tiledlayout(3,3,"TileSpacing","compact","Padding","compact");
xlims = [-13,3];
ylims = [-3,3];
for ii = 1:9
    to_plot = zeros(410,170);
    
    ax(ii)=nexttile;

    imagesc(xlims,ylims,to_plot,'Interpolation','bilinear')
 
    shading interp;
    colormap("jet")

 
    title( "$t = " + ii + "$",'fontsize',15,'interpreter','latex')
    axis off
    axis image
    
end

●

pos_table =array2table(  vertcat(ax.InnerPosition),   VariableNames={'Left','Lower','Width','Height'}, RowNames=compose('t = %d',1:9))

pos_table = 9x4 table
              Left       Lower       Width     Height 
             _______    ________    _______    _______

    t = 1      0.065      0.7468    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 2    0.37012      0.7468    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 3    0.67524      0.7468    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 4      0.065      0.4177    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 5    0.37012      0.4177    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 6    0.67524      0.4177    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 7      0.065    0.088609    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 8    0.37012    0.088609    0.26976    0.13449
    t = 9    0.67524    0.088609    0.26976    0.13449

Answer 2

[Star Strider]

This may be a problem with the tiledlayout function.

Looking at the Position vectors of each of the axes, they all should have essentially the same widths, and they actually appear to. There is no obvious discrepancy between them. They are all very close, and should plot with the same appearances.

Someone from MathWorks may be able to resolve this.

My analysis —

figure(3);
clf

tiledlayout(3,3,"TileSpacing","compact","Padding","compact");
xlims = [-13,3];
ylims = [-3,3];
for ii = 1:9
    to_plot = randn(410,170);
    
    nexttile
    % subplot(3,3,ii) % Gets rid of the problem, but leaves too much white
    % space.
    ax = gca;
    hold on
    imagesc(xlims,ylims,to_plot,'Interpolation','bilinear')
    
    pos(ii,:) = ax.Position;
    
    shading interp;
    colormap("jet")

    title(ax, "$t = " + num2str(ii) + "$",'interpreter','latex','fontsize',15)
    hold off
    axis equal
    axis off
end

●

pos_table = array2table(pos, VariableNames={'Left','Lower','Width','Height'}, RowNames=compose('t = %d',1:9))

pos_table = 9x4 table
              Left       Lower       Width     Height 
             _______    ________    _______    _______

    t = 1      0.065     0.69199       0.27    0.27051
    t = 2     0.3724     0.66243    0.26519    0.25573
    t = 3    0.67524     0.66243    0.26976    0.25573
    t = 4      0.065     0.36031    0.26742    0.24505
    t = 5     0.3724     0.37739    0.26519    0.21089
    t = 6    0.67524     0.37801    0.26976    0.20964
    t = 7      0.065    0.051742    0.26519    0.20823
    t = 8     0.3724    0.051742    0.26519    0.20823
    t = 9    0.67524    0.051742    0.26976    0.20823

pos_stats = array2table([mean(pos(:,[3 4])); median(pos(:,[3 4])); std(pos(:,[3 4])); min(pos(:,[3 4])); max(pos(:,[3 4]))], VariableNames={'Width','Height'}, RowNames={'Mean','Median','StD','Min','Max'})

pos_stats = 5x2 table
                Width       Height 
              _________    ________

    Mean         0.2675     0.23025
    Median      0.26742     0.21089
    StD       0.0023178    0.025962
    Min         0.26519     0.20823
    Max            0.27     0.27051

.