[R] Set size of plot: in pdf() or par() ?

[Peter Ehlers]

Matthieu,

A couple of points that you may be misunderstanding:

1.
your 'mar' setting overwrites the 'mai' setting;
use one or the other.

2.
pdf(width=0.5, height=0.3) sets the *device* region
dimensions, not the *plot* region. The thing to
remember is that "device contains figure contains plot".
[check par()$din, par()$fin, par()$pin]

You're fitting a plot plus margins plus outer margins
into a device; unless all margins are zero, the plot
will have to be smaller than the device region.

Note also that your 'mai' setting interacts with
the 'pin' setting. Try this on your monitor:

  par(mai = rep(.1,4), pin = c(0.5, 0.3))
  plot(1:10)
  dev.off()

  par(pin = c(0.5, 0.3), mai = rep(.1,4))
  plot(1:10)
  dev.off()

There's a note on the ?par page:
   "In particular, the settings of mai, mar, pin, plt
    and pty interact, ..."

Peter Ehlers

On 2011-02-23 04:39, Matthieu Stigler wrote:
> Dear R List
>
> Could I ask again my question about where the size of a plot should be
> specified (in par or pdf?). I still did not figure out, and any help
> would be much appreciated!!
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Matthieu
>
> Le 22. 02. 11 13:53, Matthieu Stigler a écrit :
>> Hi
>>
>> I want to have a rectangular plot of size 0.5*0.3 inches. I am having
>> surprisingly a difficult time to do it... Since I will export it, I
>> use also pdf(). The plot works fine, but once I specify the size in
>> pdf() I get problems... see:
>>
>> Say I specify my plot as following:
>>
>> par(pin=c(0.5, 0.3),mai=rep(0.1,4), omi=rep(0.01,4), mar=c(5,4,4,2))
>>
>> plot(runif(100))
>>
>>
>> If I now add
>>
>> pdf()
>>
>> par(pin=c(0.5, 0.3),mai=rep(0.1,4), omi=rep(0.01,4), mar=c(5,4,4,2))
>>
>> plot(runif(100))
>>
>> dev.off()
>>
>>
>> The resulting pdf has not the size specified!
>>
>> If I specifz this size in pdf(), I get an error...
>>
>> pdf("try.pdf", height=0.3, width=0.5)
>>
>> par(pin=c(0.5, 0.3),mai=rep(0.1,4), omi=rep(0.01,4), mar=c(5,4,4,2))
>>
>> plot(runif(100))
>>
>> Error in plot.new() : figure margins too large
>>
>>
>> So obviously pdf() is modifying some other par() parameter I could not
>> figure out... Any idea?
>>
>> Thanks!!
>>
>> Matthieu
>
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