R: Handling Grid Graphical Parameters

gpar {grid} | R Documentation

## Handling Grid Graphical Parameters

### Description

`gpar()` should be used to create a set of graphical parameter settings. It returns an object of class `"gpar"`. This is basically a list of name-value pairs.

`get.gpar()` can be used to query the current graphical parameter settings.

### Usage

    gpar(...)
    get.gpar(names = NULL)

### Arguments

`...` | Any number of named arguments.
`names` | A character vector of valid graphical parameter names.

### Details

All grid viewports and (predefined) graphical objects have a slot called `gp`, which contains a `"gpar"` object. When a viewport is pushed onto the viewport stack and when a graphical object is drawn, the settings in the `"gpar"` object are enforced. In this way, the graphical output is modified by the `gp` settings until the graphical object has finished drawing, or until the viewport is popped off the viewport stack, or until some other viewport or graphical object is pushed or begins drawing.

The default parameter settings are defined by the ROOT viewport, which takes its settings from the graphics device. These defaults may differ between devices (e.g., the default `fill` setting is different for a PNG device compared to a PDF device).

Valid parameter names are:

col | Colour for lines and borders.
fill | Colour for filling rectangles, polygons, ...
alpha | Alpha channel for transparency
lty | Line type
lwd | Line width
lex | Multiplier applied to line width
lineend | Line end style (round, butt, square)
linejoin | Line join style (round, mitre, bevel)
linemitre | Line mitre limit (number greater than 1)
fontsize | The size of text (in points)
cex | Multiplier applied to fontsize
fontfamily | The font family
fontface | The font face (bold, italic, ...)
lineheight | The height of a line as a multiple of the size of text
font | Font face (alias for fontface; for backward compatibility)

For more details of many of these, see the help for the corresponding graphical parameter `par` in base graphics. (This may have a slightly different name, e.g. `lend`, `ljoin`, `lmitre`, `family`.)

Colours can be specified in one of the forms returned by `rgb`, as a name (see `colors`) or as a non-negative integer index into the current palette (with zero being taken as transparent). (Prior to R 3.0.0 negative integer values were allowed and taken as transparent: they are now an error.)

The `alpha` setting is combined with the alpha channel for individual colours by multiplying (with both alpha settings normalised to the range 0 to 1).

The size of text is `fontsize`*`cex`. The size of a line is `fontsize`*`cex`*`lineheight`.

The `cex` setting is cumulative; if a viewport is pushed with a `cex` of 0.5 then another viewport is pushed with a `cex` of 0.5, the effective `cex` is 0.25.

The `alpha` and `lex` settings are also cumulative.

Changes to the `fontfamily` may be ignored by some devices, but is supported by PostScript, PDF, X11, Windows, and Quartz. The `fontfamily` may be used to specify one of the Hershey Font families (e.g., `HersheySerif`) and this specification will be honoured on all devices.

The specification of `fontface` can be an integer or a string. If an integer, then it follows the R base graphics standard: 1 = plain, 2 = bold, 3 = italic, 4 = bold italic. If a string, then valid values are: `"plain"`, `"bold"`, `"italic"`, `"oblique"`, and `"bold.italic"`. For the special case of the HersheySerif font family, `"cyrillic"`, `"cyrillic.oblique"`, and `"EUC"` are also available.

All parameter values can be vectors of multiple values. (This will not always make sense – for example, viewports will only take notice of the first parameter value.)

The `gamma` parameter is defunct since R 2.7.0.

`get.gpar()` returns all current graphical parameter settings.

### Value

An object of class `"gpar"`.

### Author(s)

Paul Murrell

### See Also

`Hershey`.

### Examples

    gp <- get.gpar()
    utils::str(gp)
    ## These *do* nothing but produce a "gpar" object:
    gpar(col = "red")
    gpar(col = "blue", lty = "solid", lwd = 3, fontsize = 16)
    get.gpar(c("col", "lty"))
    grid.newpage()
    vp <- viewport(w = .8, h = .8, gp = gpar(col="blue"))
    grid.draw(gTree(children=gList(rectGrob(gp = gpar(col="red")),
                         textGrob(paste("The rect is its own colour (red)",
                                        "but this text is the colour",
                                        "set by the gTree (green)",
                                        sep = "\n"))),
          gp = gpar(col="green"), vp = vp))
    grid.text("This text is the colour set by the viewport (blue)",
              y = 1, just = c("center", "bottom"),
              gp = gpar(fontsize=20), vp = vp)
    grid.newpage()
    ## example with multiple values for a parameter
    pushViewport(viewport())
    grid.points(1:10/11, 1:10/11, gp = gpar(col=1:10))
    popViewport()

[Package grid version 3.1.2 Index]