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+# Preparing figures for publication
+
+Here is a summary the most important steps and commands necessary to obtain nice figures of your data that can be imported into the text editing program of your choice.
+
+## Scaling 
+
+Here is how to set the figure dimensions to (8 x 6) cm:
+
+```matlab
+fig = figure;
+
+% create figure here
+
+fig.Units               = 'centimeters';
+fig.Position(3)         = 8;
+fig.Position(4)         = 6;
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can do the following and use the `gcf` command:
+
+```matlab
+set(gcf, 'units', 'centimeters', 'position', [0 0 width height])
+```
+
+The maximum width for one-column and two-column figures, respectively, is usually given by the journal you want to submit to. Or, if you are using a LaTeX, you can output the required widths with the `\the` command:
+
+```latex
+\the\hsize
+```
+
+## Formatting text
+
+Here we select the font Times and set the font size to 9.
+
+```matlab
+set(fig.Children, ...
+    'FontName',     'Times', ...
+    'FontSize',     9);
+```
+
+
+## Remove unnecessary white space
+
+As the white space surrounding the plot wastes a lot of the precious figure space, especially for small figures, it should be removed (or minimized) in the next step:
+
+```matlab
+set(gca, 'LooseInset', max(get(gca,'TightInset'), 0.02))
+```
+
+
+## Exporting
+
+The figure can be exported to the desired graphics format. This can be done with the saveas command, but the print command allows for the definition of more attributes of the exported file. 
+
+First, in order for the exported file to have the same size as the Matlab figure, it's necessary to first set the `PaperPositionMode` to automatic. Then we export the current figure to a png file with 600 dpi resolution:
+
+```matlab
+fig.PaperPositionMode   = 'auto';
+print('img/my_figure', '-dpng', '-r600')
+```
+
+If using vector graphics, `-dpng` can be replaced by `-epsc` for colored eps.