Question
Hi, I would like to rotate the legend from horizontal layout to vertical layout, just as shown in the picture below. Could anyone share some experience about this? Thanks for you coming help!
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Expert Answer
Prashant Kumar
PhD Expert
Answered Aug 16, 2026
There is no direct function to rotate legends in graphs using MATLAB.
However, as a workaround we can manually rotate the legends. Please refer to the following example:
% create a sample plot
h1 = plot(1:5);
% add legend to the graph
[legend_handle, icons] = legend('Sample legend');
% disable the box around the legend object
set(legend_handle, 'Box', 'off')
% get the current position of the legend object
leg_pos=get(legend_handle,'position');
% assign the required position of the legend to a new variable
new_leg_pos=[.7 0.6 .2 leg_pos(4)+.2] ;
% Get current line data (horizontal line)
xd = icons(2).XData;
yd = icons(2).YData;
% Swap X and Y data for line (make vertical line)
icons(2).XData = yd;
icons(2).YData = xd;
% Rotate and reposition the text
set(icons(1),'rotation',90)
icons(1).Position = [0.5 0.4 0];
% Adjust legend size to accomodate changes.
set(legend_handle,'position',new_leg_pos);
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