How to scale a barplot in tikz without scaling the text?

Question

I have a barplot in latex in tikz, that I want to scale (reduce width, increase length), but without the text having the same effect.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\resizebox{0.8\textwidth}{1.3\textwidth}{
\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfplotsset{every tick label/.append style={font=\tiny}}
\begin{axis}[ xmajorgrids=true,
xbar, xmin=0,
xlabel={Gini Coefficient, OECD Countries \%},
symbolic y coords={{Australia},{Austria},{Belgium},{Canada},{Chile},{Costa Rica},{Czech Republic},{Denmark},{Estonia},{Finland},{France},{Germany},{Greece},{Hungary},{Iceland},{Ireland},{Israel},{Italy},{Japan},{Korea},{Latvia},{Lithuania},{Luxembourg},{Mexico},{Netherlands},{New Zealand},{Norway},{Poland},{Portugal},{Slovak Republic},{Slovenia},{South Africa},{Spain},{Sweden},{Switzerland},{Turkey},{United Kingdom},{United States}},
ytick=data,
nodes near coords, nodes near coords align={horizontal},
ytick=data,
]
\addplot[fill=blue!90,draw=black!70,tickwidth = 0pt,bar width=4pt,label style={font=\small}, tick label style={font=\small}] coordinates {(0.33,{Australia}) (0.284,{Austria}) (0.266,{Belgium}) (0.307,{Canada}) (0.454,{Chile}) (0.48,{Costa Rica}) (0.253,{Czech Republic}) (0.263,{Denmark}) (0.314,{Estonia}) (0.266,{Finland}) (0.291,{France}) (0.294,{Germany}) (0.333,{Greece}) (0.288,{Hungary}) (0.255,{Iceland}) (0.297,{Ireland}) (0.344,{Israel}) (0.328,{Italy}) (0.339,{Japan}) (0.355,{Korea}) (0.346,{Latvia}) (0.378,{Lithuania}) (0.304,{Luxembourg}) (0.458,{Mexico}) (0.285,{Netherlands}) (0.349,{New Zealand}) (0.262,{Norway}) (0.284,{Poland}) (0.331,{Portugal}) (0.241,{Slovak Republic}) (0.244,{Slovenia}) (0.62,{South Africa}) (0.341,{Spain}) (0.282,{Sweden}) (0.296,{Switzerland}) (0.404,{Turkey}) (0.351,{United Kingdom}) (0.391,{United States})};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\caption{\small{Gini coefficient, OECD countries, 2017 or latest available, source: \url{https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm}}}
\label{fig:giniOECD}
\end{figure}

I would like the bar charts a bit further apart to each other, the blank areas on top and at the end to be removed, the markers (text within the chart that show the values) to be smaller and all the text to be at normal scale, not skewed like that.

Answer 1

• Never ever use \resizebox (or \scalebox) for things that contain text.

• to set the height and the width of a pgfplot, the height and width keywords can be used

• don't put formatting instructions in arguments of macros like \caption. If you want the caption in another font size, you can adjust it with the help of the caption package

---

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage[font=small]{caption}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[htbp]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfplotsset{%
    width=.8\textwidth,
    height=1.5\textwidth
}
\begin{axis}[ 
    xmajorgrids=true,
    xbar, 
    xmin=0,
    xlabel={Gini Coefficient, OECD Countries \%},
    symbolic y coords={{Australia}, {Austria}, {Belgium}, {Canada}, {Chile}, {Costa Rica}, {Czech Republic}, {Denmark}, {Estonia}, {Finland}, {France}, {Germany}, {Greece}, {Hungary}, {Iceland}, {Ireland}, {Israel}, {Italy}, {Japan}, {Korea}, {Latvia}, {Lithuania}, {Luxembourg}, {Mexico}, {Netherlands}, {New Zealand}, {Norway}, {Poland}, {Portugal}, {Slovak Republic}, {Slovenia}, {South Africa}, {Spain}, {Sweden}, {Switzerland}, {Turkey}, {United Kingdom}, {United States}},
    ytick=data,
    nodes near coords, 
    nodes near coords align={horizontal},
     enlarge y limits=0.02,
]
\addplot[fill=blue!90,draw=black!70,tickwidth = 0pt,bar width=4pt,label style={font=\small}, tick label style={font=\small}] coordinates {(0.33,{Australia}) (0.284,{Austria}) (0.266,{Belgium}) (0.307,{Canada}) (0.454,{Chile}) (0.48,{Costa Rica}) (0.253,{Czech Republic}) (0.263,{Denmark}) (0.314,{Estonia}) (0.266,{Finland}) (0.291,{France}) (0.294,{Germany}) (0.333,{Greece}) (0.288,{Hungary}) (0.255,{Iceland}) (0.297,{Ireland}) (0.344,{Israel}) (0.328,{Italy}) (0.339,{Japan}) (0.355,{Korea}) (0.346,{Latvia}) (0.378,{Lithuania}) (0.304,{Luxembourg}) (0.458,{Mexico}) (0.285,{Netherlands}) (0.349,{New Zealand}) (0.262,{Norway}) (0.284,{Poland}) (0.331,{Portugal}) (0.241,{Slovak Republic}) (0.244,{Slovenia}) (0.62,{South Africa}) (0.341,{Spain}) (0.282,{Sweden}) (0.296,{Switzerland}) (0.404,{Turkey}) (0.351,{United Kingdom}) (0.391,{United States})};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Gini coefficient, OECD countries, 2017 or latest available, source: \url{https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm}}
\label{fig:giniOECD}
\end{figure}

\end{document}