[R] Fancy Page layout

[Jim Lemon]

On 06/01/2010 04:16 AM, Noah Silverman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Working on a report that is going to have a large number of graphs and
> summaries.  We have 80 "groups" with 20 variables each.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to produce ONE page for each group.  It would have two
> columns of 10 graphs and then the 5 number summary of the variables at
> the bottom.
> So, perhaps the top 2/3 of the page has the graphs and the bottom third
> has 20 rows of data summary(maybe a table of sorts.)
> This COULD be done in Latex, but would have to be hand coded for each of
> the 80 groups which would be painfully slow.
>
> I can easily do the graphs with par(mfrow=c(5,2))  band then draw the
> graphs in a loop.
>
> But I am stuck from here:
>
> 1) How do I control the size of the plot window.  (Ideally, it should
> print to fill an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper)
> 2) Is there a way to "easily" insert a 5 number summary (summary
> command) into the lower half of the page.
>
> Does anybody have any ideas??
>
Hi Noah,
One easy way is to leave some space at the bottom, either by using:

par(mfrow=c(6,2))

or the more flexible "layout" function, and then use "text" or a fancier 
function (textbox, boxed.labels, addtable2plot, etc.) to add your text 
after:

par(xpd=NA)

allows you to display the text anywhere you please. If you use a bitmap 
graphics device, make it big:

png("numberoneofeighty.png",850,1100)

so that it won't look lumpy on the printed page.

Jim