Re: [Rd] Request for a crop option on R's standard plot context menu

[Simon Urbanek]

Toby,

R provides more convenient ways for this - using window devices for any output 
other than screen is not its intended function. I would recommend using the 
off-screen devices devices such as pdf() or png() to generate output which also 
gives you far more control. Also please note that the amount of margins you 
include in the plots is entirely up to you, it should not be necessary to crop 
anything after the fact if you set mar/oma to the desired values.

That said, it is just a simple one-liner "magick::image_trim('foo.png')" to 
trim an image if you want to go that route.

Cheers,
Simon



> On Feb 12, 2021, at 5:55 AM, Marthews, Toby R. via R-devel 
>  wrote:
> 
> Dear R Dev,
> 
> I hope you don't mind a request for a feature from a long-time R user 
> (happily using R since 2005).
> 
> I use R for lots of plotting for my work, e.g. for my current project I have 
> a script that generates 300 plots. I generally copy these all as bitmaps and 
> put them directly into a Word document for my report (see e.g. attached 
> screenshot).
> 
> I am always required to maximise the plots to get the best resolution, but 
> that always means I get lots of white space when I copy the plot into Word. 
> Cropping them takes a reasonable amount of time (e.g. an entire day to crop 
> all 300 for this project).
> 
> I'm wondering whether it would be possible to have an option added to the 
> plot window context menu for "Cropped bitmap" or "Crop whitespace"? I think 
> this would be VERY useful because all the online tools I've seen for 
> batch-cropping a set of images require the same crop to be applied to all 
> images (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icbpS0OH9a0 ) and that's not the 
> case for my plots (some of my plots are panel plots, some simpler plots).
> 
> I know it's a bit cheeky to ask for something that I have no idea how to code 
> up myself: I am just hoping that this feedback might go somewhere useful. R 
> can really do 99% of things kind of perfectly so it seems churlish to point 
> out the 1%, but if this is an easy thing to add in then at least I would use 
> it pretty much every project I work on!
> 
> Many thanks and best regards,
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Toby
> 
> PS. I know I could modify my script so that it creates windows of exactly the 
> right size (dev.new), but doing that would mean I would have to recalculate 
> the sizes if I changed anything on the plots at all (e.g. aspect, x label) so 
> I would lose probably more time pursuing that option. Also, I've found that 
> using lots of dev.new commands makes it difficult for colleagues who use 
> RStudio to use my scripts.
>   I am also aware I could export these images as pdfs, but then I would have 
> to open 300 pdfs, extract the images and crop them all in 3rd party software. 
> Again, perfectly possible but I am searching for a slightly quicker solution 
> (!).
> 
> 
> Dr Toby Marthews
> 
> UKCEH Band 6 Researcher in Global Surface Science (Hydro-Climate Risks)
> 
>   Mob: +44 753 2168305, web: www.tobymarthews.com
> 
> 
> 
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[Rd] Request for a crop option on R's standard plot context menu

[Marthews, Toby R. via R-devel]

Dear R Dev,

I hope you don't mind a request for a feature from a long-time R user (happily 
using R since 2005).

I use R for lots of plotting for my work, e.g. for my current project I have a 
script that generates 300 plots. I generally copy these all as bitmaps and put 
them directly into a Word document for my report (see e.g. attached screenshot).

I am always required to maximise the plots to get the best resolution, but that 
always means I get lots of white space when I copy the plot into Word. Cropping 
them takes a reasonable amount of time (e.g. an entire day to crop all 300 for 
this project).

I'm wondering whether it would be possible to have an option added to the plot 
window context menu for "Cropped bitmap" or "Crop whitespace"? I think this 
would be VERY useful because all the online tools I've seen for batch-cropping 
a set of images require the same crop to be applied to all images (e.g. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icbpS0OH9a0 ) and that's not the case for my 
plots (some of my plots are panel plots, some simpler plots).

I know it's a bit cheeky to ask for something that I have no idea how to code 
up myself: I am just hoping that this feedback might go somewhere useful. R can 
really do 99% of things kind of perfectly so it seems churlish to point out the 
1%, but if this is an easy thing to add in then at least I would use it pretty 
much every project I work on!

Many thanks and best regards,

Best regards,

Toby

PS. I know I could modify my script so that it creates windows of exactly the 
right size (dev.new), but doing that would mean I would have to recalculate the 
sizes if I changed anything on the plots at all (e.g. aspect, x label) so I 
would lose probably more time pursuing that option. Also, I've found that using 
lots of dev.new commands makes it difficult for colleagues who use RStudio to 
use my scripts.
   I am also aware I could export these images as pdfs, but then I would have 
to open 300 pdfs, extract the images and crop them all in 3rd party software. 
Again, perfectly possible but I am searching for a slightly quicker solution 
(!).


Dr Toby Marthews

UKCEH Band 6 Researcher in Global Surface Science (Hydro-Climate Risks)

   Mob: +44 753 2168305, web: www.tobymarthews.com



This email and any attachments are intended solely for the named recipients and 
are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please reply to the 
email to highlight the error and delete this email from your system; you must 
not use, disclose, copy or distribute this email or any of its attachments. 
UKCEH has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise risk of this email or 
any attachments containing viruses or malware but the recipient should carry 
out its own virus and malware checks before opening the attachments. UKCEH does 
not accept any liability for any losses or damages which the recipient may 
sustain due to presence of any viruses. Opinions, conclusions or other 
information in this message and attachments that are not related directly to 
UKCEH business are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of 
UKCEH. We process your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice, 
available on the UKCEH website.
https://www.ceh.ac.uk/privacy-notice
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