Plot Setup for MULTiple FIGures, incl. Main Title

Easy Setup for plotting multiple figures (in a rectangular layout) on one page. It allows to specify a main title and uses smart defaults for several par calls.

Usage

mult.fig(nr.plots, mfrow, mfcol, marP = rep(0, 4),
         mgp = c(if(par("las") != 0) 2. else 1.5, 0.6, 0),
         mar = marP + 0.1 + c(4,4,2,1), oma = c(0,0, tit.wid, 0),
         main = NULL,
         tit.wid = if (is.null(main)) 0 else 1 + 1.5*cex.main,
         cex.main = par("cex.main"), line.main = cex.main - 1/2,
         col.main = par("col.main"), font.main = par("font.main"), ...)

Arguments

nr.plots: integer; the number of plot figures you'll want to draw.
mfrow, mfcol: instead of nr.plots: integer(2) vectors giving the rectangular figure layout for par(mfrow = *), or par(mfcol=*), respectively. The default is to use mfrow = n2mfrow(nr.plots).
marP: numeric(4) vector of figure margins to add (“Plus”) to default mar, see below.
mgp: argument for par(mpg= .) with a smaller default than usual.
mar: argument for par(mar= .) with a smaller default than usual, using the marP argument, see above.
oma: argument for par(oma= .), by default for adding space for the main title if necessary.
main: character. The main title to be used for the whole graphic.
tit.wid: numeric specifying the vertical width to be used for the main title; note that this is only used for the default value of oma (s. above).
cex.main: numeric; the character size to be used for the main title.
line.main: numeric; the margin line at which the title is written (via mtext(main, side=3, outer=TRUE, line = line.main, ....)).
col.main, font.main: color and font for main title, passed to mtext(), see also par(*).
...: further arguments to mtext for the main title.

Value

A list with two components that are lists themselves, a subset of par(),

new.par: the current par settings.
old.par: the par before the call.

Author

Martin Maechler, UW Seattle, 1990 (for S).

Examples

opl <- mult.fig(5, main= expression("Sine Functions " * sin(n * pi * x)))
x <- seq(0, 1, len = 201)
for (n in 1:5)
  plot(x, sin(n * pi * x), ylab ="", main = paste("n = ",n))
par(opl$old.par)


rr <- mult.fig(mfrow=c(5,1), main= "Cosinus Funktionen", cex = 1.5,
               marP = - c(0, 1, 2, 0))
for (n in 1:5)
  plot(x, cos(n * pi * x), type = 'l', col="red", ylab ="")

str(rr)
#> List of 2
#>  $ new.par:List of 5
#>   ..$ mfrow: int [1:2] 5 1
#>   ..$ mfcol: int [1:2] 5 1
#>   ..$ oma  : num [1:4] 0 0 3.25 0
#>   ..$ mar  : num [1:4] 4.1 3.1 0.1 1.1
#>   ..$ mgp  : num [1:3] 1.5 0.6 0
#>  $ old.par:List of 4
#>   ..$ mfrow: int [1:2] 1 1
#>   ..$ oma  : num [1:4] 0 0 0 0
#>   ..$ mar  : num [1:4] 5.1 4.1 4.1 2.1
#>   ..$ mgp  : num [1:3] 3 1 0
par(rr$old.par)
## The *restored* par settings:
str(do.call("par", as.list(names(rr$new.par))))
#> List of 5
#>  $ mfrow: int [1:2] 1 1
#>  $ mfcol: int [1:2] 1 1
#>  $ oma  : num [1:4] 0 0 0 0
#>  $ mar  : num [1:4] 5.1 4.1 4.1 2.1
#>  $ mgp  : num [1:3] 3 1 0

## Manual setting of `tit.wid`  in case subsequent code also manages par():
mult.fig(4, tit.wid = 2)$old.par -> opar
plot(lm(sr ~ pop15 + pop75 + dpi + ddpi, data = LifeCycleSavings))

par(opar) # reset