R: Initializing Trellis Displays

C_01_trellis.device {lattice}

R Documentation

Initializing Trellis Displays

Description

Initialization of a display device with appropriate graphical parameters.

Usage

trellis.device(device = getOption("device"),
               color = !(dev.name == "postscript"),
               theme = lattice.getOption("default.theme"),
               new = TRUE,
               retain = FALSE,
               ...)

Arguments

`device`	function (or the name of one as a character string) that starts a device. Admissible values depend on the platform and how R was compiled (see `Devices`), but usually `"pdf"`, `"postscript"`, `"png"`, `"jpeg"` and at least one of `"X11"`, `"windows"` and `"quartz"` will be available.
`color`	logical, whether the initial settings should be color or black and white. Defaults to `FALSE` for postscript devices, `TRUE` otherwise. Note that this only applies to the initial choice of colors, which can be overridden using `theme` or subsequent calls to `trellis.par.set` (and by arguments supplied directly in high level calls for some settings).
`theme`	list of components that changes the settings of the device opened, or, a function that when called produces such a list. The function name can be supplied as a quoted string. These settings are only used to modify the default settings (determined by other arguments), and need not contain all possible parameters. A possible use of this argument is to change the default settings by specifying `lattice.options(default.theme = "col.whitebg")`. For back-compatibility, this is initially (when lattice is loaded) set to `getOption(lattice.theme)`. If `theme` is a function, it will not be supplied any arguments, however, it is guaranteed that a device will already be open when it is called, so one may use `.Device` inside the function to ascertain what device has been opened.
`new`	logical flag indicating whether a new device should be started. If `FALSE`, the options for the current device are changed to the defaults determined by the other arguments.
`retain`	logical. If `TRUE` and a setting for this device already exists, then that is used instead of the defaults for this device. By default, pre-existing settings are overwritten (and lost).
`name`	name of the device for which the setting is required, as returned by `.Device`
`...`	additional parameters to be passed to the `device` function, most commonly `file` for non-screen devices, as well as `height`, `width`, etc. See the help file for individual devices for admissible arguments.

Details

The trellis.device function sets up an R graphics device for use with lattice graphics, by opening the device if necessary, and defining a set of associated graphical parameters (colors, line types, fonts, etc.).

Even if a device is opened without calling trellis.device, for example, by calling a device function directly, trellis.device is still called automatically when a "trellis" object is plotted. The default graphical settings used in this case can be customized using lattice.options. It is therefore rarely necessary for the user to call trellis.device explicitly.

Value

None; trellis.device is called for the side effect of opening a device and / or setting associated graphical parameters.

Note

Earlier versions of trellis.device had a bg argument to set the background color, but this is no longer supported. If supplied, the bg argument will be passed on to the device function; however, this will have no effect on the Trellis settings. It is rarely meaningful to change the background alone; if you feel the need to change the background, consider using the theme argument instead.

Author(s)

Deepayan Sarkar Deepayan.Sarkar@R-project.org

References

Sarkar, Deepayan (2008) Lattice: Multivariate Data Visualization with R, Springer. http://lmdvr.r-forge.r-project.org/