[R] boxplot changes fontsize of labels

[Prof Brian Ripley]

Please read the help for par(mfrow)!  AFAICS this is nothing to do with 
boxplot().

           In a layout with exactly two rows and columns the base value
           of '"cex"' is reduced by a factor of 0.83: if there are three
           or more of either rows or columns, the reduction factor is
           0.66.

See also the 'consider the alternatives' in that entry.

On Fri, 6 Jun 2008, Sebastian Merz wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> So far I learned some R but finilizing my plots so they look
> publishable seems not to be possible.
>
> I set up some boxplots. Everything works well but when I put more then
> two of them in one plot the labels of the axes appear smaller than the
> normal font size.
>
>> x <- rnorm(30)
>> y <- rnorm(30)
>> par(mfrow=c(1,4))
>> boxplot(x,y, names=c("horray", "hurra"))
>> mtext("Jubel", side=1, line=2)
>
> In case I take one or two boxplots this does not happen:
>> par(mfrow=c(1,2))
>> boxplot(x,y, names=c("horray", "hurra"))
>> mtext("Jubel", side=1, line=2)
>
> The cex.axis seems not to be changed, as setting it to 1.0 doesn't
> change the behaviour. If cex.axis=1.3 in the first example the font
> size used by boxplot and by mtext is about the same. But as I use a
> function to draw quite some of these plots this "hack" is not a proper
> solution.
>
> I couldn't find anything about this behaviour in the documention or
> the inet.
>
> Can anybody explain? All hints are appriciated.
>
> Thanks,
> S. Merz
>
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>

-- 
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)
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