Thanks very much for the ideas Baptiste and Greg. I think this is a way to go:
# Right justifies (if adj=1) a vector of strings against the right margin (side=4) or against the y-axis (side=2) outerText <- function(string, y, side=4, cex=par('cex'), adj=1, ...) { if(side %nin% c(2,4)) stop('only works for side=2 or 4') x <- if(side==4) grconvertX(1, from='nfc', to='user') else par('usr')[1] text(x, y, paste(string,''), cex=cex, adj=adj, xpd=NA) } Frank Greg Snow wrote > > I would use the regular text function instead of mtext (remembering to > set par(xpd=...)), then use the grconvertX and grconvertY functions to > find the location to plot at (possibly adding in the results from > strwidth or stheight). > > On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Frank Harrell <f.harrell@> wrote: >> Rich's pointers deals with lattice/grid graphics. Does anyone have a >> solution for base graphics? >> Thanks >> Frank >> >> Richard M. Heiberger wrote >>> >>> Frank, >>> >>> This can be done directly with a variant of the panel.axis function. >>> See function panel.axis.right in the HH package. This was provided for >>> me >>> by David Winsemius in response to my query on this list in October 2011 >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2011-October/292806.html >>> >>> The email thread also includes comments by Deepayan Sarkar and Paul >>> Murrell. >>> >>> Rich >>> >>> On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 8:48 AM, Frank Harrell <f.harrell@>wrote: >>> >>>> I want to right-justify a vector of numbers in the right margin of a >>>> low-level plot. For this I need to compute the line parameter to give >>>> to >>>> mtext. Is this the correct scalable calculation? >>>> >>>> par(mar=c(4,3,1,5)); plot(1:20) >>>> s <- 'abcde'; w=strwidth(s, units='inches')/par('cin')[1] >>>> mtext(s, side=4, las=1, at=5, adj=1, line=w-.5, cex=1) >>>> mtext(s, side=4, las=1, at=7, adj=1, line=2*(w-.5), cex=2) >>>> >>>> Thanks >>>> Frank >>>> >>>> ----- >>>> Frank Harrell >>>> Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University >>>> -- >>>> View this message in context: >>>> http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Computing-line-for-mtext-tp4431554p4431554.html >>>> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >>>> >>>> ______________________________________________ >>>> R-help@ mailing list >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide >>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html<http://www.r-project.org/posting-guide.html> >>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >>>> >>> >>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> R-help@ mailing list >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >>> PLEASE do read the posting guide >>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >>> >> >> >> ----- >> Frank Harrell >> Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Computing-line-for-mtext-tp4431554p4436923.html >> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@ mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > > -- > Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D. > 538280@ > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@ mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ----- Frank Harrell Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Computing-line-for-mtext-tp4431554p4442874.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.