Rotating Legends in MATLAB R2019

MATLAB R2019 (both R2019a and R2019b) handles legend rotation in two different ways depending on what you want to achieve:

       
1. Switching the overall legend layout between horizontal and vertical.

       
2. Rotating the actual text labels inside the plot (such as angled or vertical text strings).

   

Method 1: Change Overall Legend Orientation (Horizontal vs. Vertical)

The standard legend object includes an Orientation property. This changes whether the entries stack in a column or spread across a row.

% Sample data
x = linspace(0, 2*pi, 100);
y1 = sin(x);
y2 = cos(x);

% Plot curves
figure;
plot(x, y1, 'b-', 'LineWidth', 1.5);
hold on;
plot(x, y2, 'r--', 'LineWidth', 1.5);
% Create and rotate legend layout to horizontal
lgd = legend('Sine Wave', 'Cosine Wave');
lgd.Orientation = 'horizontal';
lgd.Location = 'northoutside';

Method 2: Rotate Text Labels (Angled Text)

The standard MATLAB legend object does not have a native angle property (like 45° or 90°) for its internal labels. If you need angled or rotated text labels next to your lines, construct custom text annotations using the text command with the 'Rotation' property.

x = linspace(0, 2*pi, 100);
y1 = sin(x);
y2 = cos(x);

figure;
plot(x, y1, 'b', x, y2, 'r', 'LineWidth', 1.5);
grid on;
% Add custom rotated labels directly along curves
text(x(30), y1(30), '  \leftarrow Sine (Rotated 45^\circ)', ...
    'Rotation', 45, 'FontSize', 10, 'Color', 'b', 'FontWeight', 'bold');
text(x(70), y2(70), '  \leftarrow Cosine (Rotated -30^\circ)', ...
    'Rotation', -30, 'FontSize', 10, 'Color', 'r', 'FontWeight', 'bold');

Method 3: Build a Custom Rotated Legend Box

To place an independent box with 90-degree rotated labels, overlay an invisible secondary axis or use text inside a dedicated bounding box.

x = linspace(0, 10, 100);
figure;
h1 = plot(x, sin(x), 'b'); hold on;
h2 = plot(x, cos(x), 'r');

% Add a rotated text annotation block
txt = sprintf('Line 1: sin(x)\nLine 2: cos(x)');
t = text(8.5, 0.5, txt, 'Rotation', 90, ...
    'EdgeColor', [0.8 0.8 0.8], ...
    'BackgroundColor', [1 1 1], ...
    'Margin', 8, ...
    'FontSize', 10);

Summary Comparison

       
• Horizontal row vs. vertical column: Use lgd.Orientation = 'horizontal' or lgd.Orientation = 'vertical'.

       
• Specific angular rotation (e.g., 45° or 90°): Use the text() function with the 'Rotation', angle parameter.