[R] Plot symbols for more than 25 groups

John Fox jfox at mcmaster.ca
Fri Apr 2 16:02:02 CEST 2004


Dear Marc,

I may misunderstand your question, so perhaps this answer isn't what you're
looking for: 

A short time ago, Henrik Bengtsson posted a function to r-help (search for
plotSymbols in the list archive) that displays all available symbols. I
think that it's fair to say that fewer than 25 of these could be
characterized as distinct geometric symbols. 

On the other hand, the colour space for R is very large; see, e.g.,
help("colours") and the help pages linked to it. 

Moreover, if you take combinations of filled symbols and even basic colours,
you could in principle represent more than 25 groups. I wonder, however,
whether someone viewing a graph with so many different symbols will be able
to parse the information.

I hope this helps,
 John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Marc 
> R. Feldesman
> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 11:40 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] Plot symbols for more than 25 groups
> 
> Is there any effective way to get distinct geometric plotting 
> symbols and colors for plots involving more than 25 groups?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dr. Marc R. Feldesman
> Professor and Chairman Emeritus
> Anthropology Department - Portland State University
> email:  feldesmanm at pdx.edu
> email:  feldesman at attglobal.net
> fax:    503-725-3905
> 
> 
> "Don't knock on my door if you don't know my Rottweiler's 
> name"  Warren Zevon "Its midnight and I'm not famous yet"  
> Jimmy Buffett
> 
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