[R] Spacing and margins in plot

[Uwe Ligges]

Jamieson Cobleigh wrote:

> If I use the following command to plot points:
> 
> plot(c(1,2,2,3,3,3), type="p", pch=20, ylab="Y Label", xlab="X Label", xaxt="n")
> 
> there is a large amount of space between the label "X Label" and the
> actual x-axis.  If I change the xaxt="n" to xaxt="s", the label "X
> Label" don't move at all.  Is there a way to get the label "X Label"
> closer to the x-axis when xaxt="n"?
> 
> 
> 
> The plot I am generating is going to be included in a paper I am
> writing.  I can cause the plot to be saved in a PDF file by doing the
> following:
> 
> pdf("foo.pdf", width=5.5, height=4.25, onefile=FALSE)
> 
> plot(c(1,2,2,3,3,3), type="p", pch=20, ylab="Y Label", xlab="X Label", xaxt="n")
> 
> dev.off();
> 
> In the resulting file, there is a lot of whitespace around the graph,
> particularly between the top line of the plot area and the top of the
> page.  Since I am including these plots in a paper, I want them to be
> as large as possible and not take up any extra space.  Is there a way
> to get R to draw a plot that goes all the way to the margins of the
> print area?
> 
> Jamie

For the size of margins see ?par and its argument "mar", for the 
position of the x-axis label, add it in a separate call to title() and 
specify the "line" where to add the text as in:

   par(mar = c(1, 4, 0, 0) + 0.1)
   plot(c(1,2,2,3,3,3), type="p", pch=20, ylab="Y Label",
       xlab="", xaxt="n")
   title(xlab="X Label", line=0)


Uwe Ligges

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