19.8 Saving plots in files

• The same as for regular plots applies:

png("myggplot.png")
p
dev.off()

• You can also use the ggplot2 ggsave function:

# By default, save the last plot that was produced
ggsave(filename="lastplot.png")

# You can pick which plot you want to save:
ggsave(filename="myplot.png", plot=p)

# Many different formats are available: 
  # "eps", "ps", "tex", "pdf", "jpeg", "tiff", "png", "bmp", "svg", "wmf"
ggsave(filename="myplot.ps", plot=p, device="ps")

# Change the height and width (and their unit):
ggsave(filename="myplot.pdf", 
  width = 20, 
  height = 20, 
  units = "cm")

• You can also organize several plots on one page
  • One way is to use the gridExtra package:
  • ncol, nrow: arrange plots in such number of columns and rows

install.packages("gridExtra")

# load package
library(gridExtra)
# 2 rows and 2 columns
grid.arrange(pscat, pbox, pbar, phist, nrow=2, ncol=2)

# 1 row and 4 columns
grid.arrange(pscat, pbox, pbar, phist, nrow=1, ncol=4)

WARNING !!: ggsave and grid.arrange are not directly compatible. To save a file organized by grid.arrange, use the regular functions (pdf, png etc.)

jpeg("grid_arrange_plots.jpg")
grid.arrange(pscat, pbox, pbar, phist, nrow=1, ncol=4)
dev.off()