Print a plot object or save it to a PDF

A convenience function that either displays a plot object in an R graphics window or saves it to a PDF.

Usage

pdf_print(
    plot_obj,
    width = 7,
    height = 7,
    save_to_pdf = FALSE,
    file = NULL,
    new_window = TRUE,
    ...
  )

Arguments

plot_obj

A plotting object that can be printed, such as a trellis object returned by a call to xyplot.

width

The width of the figure in inches.

height

The width of the figure in inches.

save_to_pdf

When save_to_pdf is TRUE, plot_obj will be saved as a PDF; otherwise it will be printed to an R graphics window.

file

A file name to use when save_to_pdf is TRUE. If file is NULL, then the default value will be determined by the pdf function.

new_window

When printing plot_obj to an R graphics window, a new window will be created if new_window is TRUE. Otherwise, the plot will replace the currently active plot window (if one exists).

...

Additional arguments to be passed to pdf.

Details

This function is helpful when developing and using analysis scripts. In this context, it is recommended to define a boolean called SAVE_TO_PDF early in the script and to always use pdf_print when creating figures, passing the boolean as the save_to_pdf input argument. Figures can be initially displayed in R (setting SAVE_TO_PDF = FALSE), and then saved as PDFs once graphing parameters have been optimized (setting SAVE_TO_PDF = TRUE).

Note that calling pdf from the command line (as is done internally by pdf_print) is different than exporting an R graphics object as a PDF from RGui or RStudio. For some reason, RGui and RStudio override some of the pdf defaults and set useDingbats to TRUE. This setting almost always causes problems when opening the PDFs in software like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.

Examples

SAVE_TO_PDF = FALSE # change this to TRUE to save to a PDF

pdf_print(
  lattice::xyplot(
    1:4 ~ 11:14,
    xlab = 'X',
    ylab = 'Y',
    type = 'b'
  ),
  save_to_pdf = SAVE_TO_PDF,
  file = 'example.pdf', # this name will only be used when saving to a PDF
  new_window = FALSE    # necessary for rendering the documentation examples
)