Were you suppressing warnings? I get a warning along with the "unable to start device 'png'" in some cases where it fails. E.g., on Linux
> png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e5, units = "cm") Error in png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e+05, units = "cm") : unable to start device 'png' In addition: Warning message: In png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e+05, units = "cm") : cairo error 'invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)' or on Windows > png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 100000, units = "cm") Error in png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e+05, units = "cm") : unable to start png() device In addition: Warning messages: 1: In png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e+05, units = "cm") : unable to allocate bitmap 2: In png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1e+05, units = "cm") : opening device failed or when the current directory is not writable (or does not exist) > png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1000, units = "cm") > plot(1:5) Error in plot.new() : could not open file 'Figure1A.png' Bill Dunlap TIBCO Software wdunlap tibco.com On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 6:00 PM, Dario Strbenac <dstr7...@uni.sydney.edu.au> wrote: > Good day, > > Could the documentation of graphics devices give some explanation of how big > the bitmap limits are? For example, > >> png("Figure1A.png", h = 7, w = 7, res = 1000, units = "cm") > > Results in Error: unable to start png() device, but the help page of devices > doesn't explain that there are any limits or how they are determined. The > wording of the error message could also be improved, to explain that the > resolution is too high or the dimensions are too large. > >> sessionInfo() > R version 3.3.2 Patched (2017-02-07 r72138) > Platform: i386-w64-mingw32/i386 (32-bit) > Running under: Windows 7 (build 7601) Service Pack 1 > > -------------------------------------- > Dario Strbenac > University of Sydney > Camperdown NSW 2050 > Australia > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel