[R] Plotting directly to memory?

[Jeroen Ooms]

On Sun, May 28, 2023 at 1:46 PM Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Is there a way to open a graphics device that plots entirely to an array
> or raster in memory?  I'd prefer it to use base graphics, but grid would
> be fine if it makes a difference.
>
> For an explicit example, I'd like to do the equivalent of this:
>
>    filename <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
>    png(filename)
>    plot(1:10, 1:10)
>    dev.off()
>
>    library(png)
>    img <- readPNG(filename)
>
>    unlink(filename)
>

The magick package has this capability too:

library(magick)
img <- magick::image_device()
plot(1:10, 1:10)
dev.off()
image_data(img)