[R] Changing font in boxplots

[G Iossa, School Biological Sciences]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

And sorry if I have not been clear enough in my query (although I did say 
that I run R on Windows).

Typing either par(family="serif")
or
par(font.axis=6)

solved the problem.

Much obliged,
Graziella

--On 08 August 2007 14:58 +0100 Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> 
wrote:

> On Wed, 8 Aug 2007, G Iossa, School Biological Sciences wrote:
>
>> Hi John,
>>
>> Thanks so much for such a quick reply.
>> I have tried to set all to Times font running
>>
>> par(font.lab=6) (not 4, maybe this is a local setting on my machine?)
>
> '6' is a setting specific to certain devices on Windows.  You should
> really be using font families (which are quite new and so not used in
> many of the introductions).
>
>  	par(family="serif")
>
> will change the default for all the text on subsequent plots to be in a
> serif font, which on the windows() device is (by default) Times.
>
> The R posting guide does ask you to tell us your OS, so that points like
> this do not have to be guessed at.
>
>> but now the boxplot shown has the x and y labels in Times New Roman and
>> the x and y axis still in Arial. Any idea why R is not setting those in
>> Times?
>
> Because you did not ask it to.  The font of axis annotation is set by
> font.axis, not font.lab (which is controls title()'s xlab and ylab and
> nothing in axis()).  See ?axis and ?par, both of which make this clear.
>
> John Kane has claimed that what inline pars are used by boxplot() is 'not
> clear from ?boxplot', but the lack of clarity is his, not in the
> documentation. ?boxplot refers you to ?bxp, and that spells out exactly
> which inline pars are used.
>
>>
>> Thanks a lot for your advice,
>> Graziella
>>
>> --On 08 August 2007 09:16 -0400 John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> I don't know if boxplot will accept a font argument.m
>>> From ?boxplot it is not clear.
>>> You may need to set the par() command before the
>>> boxplot
>>>
>>> Example:
>>> par(font.lab=4)
>>> boxplot(mass ~ family, data=mydata, ylab="mass %",
>>> xlab="family",las=1, cex.axis=1)
>>>
>>> --- "G Iossa, School Biological Sciences"
>>> <G.Iossa at bristol.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I am very new to R and this might be a simple
>>>> question but I have looked
>>>> everywhere you suggest before writing to you.
>>>>
>>>> I am trying to change font type from san-serif to a
>>>> serif (Times New
>>>> Romans) on all labels and axis of my boxplot. I have
>>>> used this function in
>>>> other plots before, e.g.:
>>>>
>>>> plot(residuals~lnlifespan, data=mydata, pch=psymb,
>>>> font=6, xlab="ln
>>>> reproductive lifespan", ylab="residuals ln mass",
>>>> font.lab=6, cex=1.5,
>>>> cex.axis=1.5, cex.lab=1.5)
>>>>
>>>> and found that font.lab or font.axis=6 gives Times
>>>> font. However, when I
>>>> try for boxplot:
>>>>
>>>> boxplot(mass ~ family, data=mydata, ylab="mass %",
>>>> xlab="family",
>>>> font.axis=6,  font=6, par(las=1), cex.axis=1)
>>>>
>>>> it does not work (R does not give any warning
>>>> messages). I have also tried
>>>> family="Times" but without success. Any idea of why
>>>> is not doing it and
>>>> what I can do to get Times font on my boxplot?
>>>> I run R on Windows.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks a lot,
>>>> Graziella
>>>>
>>>>
>>> *****************************************************
>>>> Dr. Graziella Iossa
>>>>
>>>> Mammal Research Unit
>>>> School Biological Sciences
>>>> University of Bristol
>>>> Woodland Road
>>>> Bristol BS8 1UG, UK
>>>>
>>>> E-mail: G.Iossa at bristol.ac.uk
>>>> Tel 0044 (0)117 9288918
>>>> Fax 0044 (0)117 3317985
>>>> http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/mammal/index.html
>>>> http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/people/Iossa.htm
>
> --
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595



*****************************************************
Dr. Graziella Iossa

Mammal Research Unit
School Biological Sciences
University of Bristol
Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1UG, UK

E-mail: G.Iossa at bristol.ac.uk
Tel 0044 (0)117 9288918
Fax 0044 (0)117 3317985
http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/mammal/index.html
http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/people/Iossa.htm