[R] GGSAVE does not save a good version of my graph

[Bert Gunter]

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-- Bert

On Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 3:45 PM Sorkin, John <jsorkin using som.umaryland.edu>
wrote:

> I am running R in RStudio. I am creating a graph, which I see in the plot
> window, and I use ggsave() to save a copy of the graph in a file.
>
> When I use look at the graph is RStudio's Plots window, the graph looks
> fine. When I click on the Plot window's export button, copy the plot to the
> clipboard and paste the graph into MS word, the graph looks fine. Please
> see first figure on attached MS word document.
>
> When I copy and paste the .tiff file saved by ggsave, the graph looks bad.
> Second figure on the attached MS word document. I think the graphs is being
> exported improperly by ggsave. I would appreciate any suggestions for
> improving the quality of the graph produced by ggsave.
>
> Please see code below and attached MS word document
>
>
>
>
> # Code to produce graph
>  ## Plot
>   zz <- ggplot(
>     df.long,
>     aes(
>       x = Date,
>       y = NumPeopleExposed,
>       color = factor(criticalvalue),
>       linetype = factor(criticalvalue),
>       group = factor(criticalvalue)
>     )
>   ) +
>     geom_point(size = 3) +
>     geom_line(linewidth = 1.5) +
>
>     scale_linetype_manual(
>       values = c(
>         "solid",
>         "dashed",
>         "dotted",
>         "dotdash",
>         "longdash",
>         "twodash"
>       )
>     ) +
>
>     labs(
>       title = species,
>       x = "Date",
>       y = "Number of People Exposed to Toxic Concentration",
>       color = "Critical Value",
>       linetype = "Critical Value"
>     ) +
>
>     ## Show every date on x-axis
>     scale_x_date(
>       breaks = sort(unique(df.long$Date)),
>       date_labels = "%Y-%m-%d"
>     ) +
>
>     theme_bw() +
>
>     theme(
>       axis.text.x = element_text(
>         angle = 45,
>         hjust = 1,
>         vjust = 1
>       )
>     )
>     print(zz)
>
> Code to save the graph
>  current_time <- Sys.time()
>   current_time
>   # Convert colons to dashes, remove spaces
>   formatted_time <- gsub(":", "-", format(current_time,
> "%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S"))
>   formatted_time
>
>   #species="JDS"
>   # Save graph
>   mypath <- file.path("C:","Users","JSorkin","OneDrive - University of
> Maryland School of Medicine","HalemMilton","PaperAndAbstract")
>   mypath
>
>   myfilename <- paste0(species2,formatted_time,".tiff")
>   myfilename
>
>   ggsave(plot=zz,
>          path=mypath,
>          filename=myfilename,
>          device="tiff",
>          width=4,height=3,
>          units="in",
>          dpi=600)
>
>   cat("Ending (12) Plot Fraction Exposed\n")
>   }
>
>
>
>
> John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
> Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine;
> Associate Director for Biostatistics and Informatics, Baltimore VA Medical
> Center Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center;
> Former PI Biostatistics and Informatics Core, University of Maryland
> School of Medicine Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center;
> Senior Statistician University of Maryland Center for Vascular Research;
>
> Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine,
> 10 North Greene Street
> GRECC (BT/18/GR)
> Baltimore, MD 21201-1524
> Cell phone 443-418-5382
>
>
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>

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