customLayout

customLayout is a simple extension of the basic layout function from R but it works not only with base and grid graphics systems, but also with PowerPoint slides using officer package.

Instalation:

customLayout is available on CRAN:

install.packages("customLayout")

The development version can be installed from GitHub using devtools:

library(devtools)
install_github("zzawadz/customLayout")

Basic functionality:

You can create layouts in the using the same syntax as in the base layout function:

library(customLayout)
lay <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:4, nc = 2),
  widths = c(3, 2),
  heights = c(2, 1))
lay_show(lay)

lay2 <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:4, nc = 2),
  widths = c(3, 5),
  heights = c(2, 4))
lay_show(lay2)

But the main strength of this package is in combining created layouts with specific ratio:

# lay will be 3 times wider that lay2
# all ascects in lay and lay2 will be preserved
cl = lay_bind_col(lay, lay2, widths = c(3, 1))
lay_show(cl)

You can create even more complicated layouts:

lay3 <- lay_new(matrix(1:2))
lay4 <- lay_bind_row(cl, lay3, heights = c(5, 2))
lay_show(lay4)

lay5 <- lay_bind_col(lay4, lay3, widths = c(5, 2))
lay_show(lay5)

Split layout

You can create very complicated layouts by splitting one field:

library(customLayout)
lay <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:4, nc = 2),
  widths = c(3, 2),
  heights = c(2, 1))
lay_show(lay)

lay2 <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:4, nc = 2),
  widths = c(3, 5),
  heights = c(2, 4))
lay_show(lay2)

# Split field 4 from lay into lay2:
slay <- lay_split_field(lay, lay2, field = 4)
lay_show(slay)

Example session:

Base graphics

library(customLayout)
par(mar = c(3, 2, 2, 1))
lay  <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:4, nc = 2),
  widths = c(3, 2),
  heights = c(2, 1))
lay2 <- lay_new(matrix(1:3))
cl   <- lay_bind_col(lay, lay2, widths = c(3, 1))

lay_set(cl) # initialize drawing area

set.seed(123)
plot(1:100 + rnorm(100))
plot(rnorm(100), type = "l")
hist(rnorm(500))
acf(rnorm(100))
pie(c(3, 4, 6), col = 2:4)
pie(c(3, 2, 7), col = 2:4 + 3)
pie(c(5, 4, 2), col = 2:4 + 6)

Grid graphics (ggplot2 and friends)

library(customLayout)
library(ggplot2)
library(gridExtra)

lay  <- lay_new(
  matrix(1:2, ncol = 1))
lay2 <- lay_new(matrix(1:3))
cl   <- lay_bind_col(lay, lay2, widths = c(3, 1))


library(ggplot2)
cuts <- sort(unique(diamonds[["cut"]]),
            decreasing = TRUE)

make_cut_plot <- function(cut) {
  dd <- diamonds[diamonds[["cut"]] == cut, ]
  pl <- ggplot(dd) +
      geom_point(aes(carat, price)) +
      facet_wrap("cut")
  pl
}

plots <- lapply(cuts, make_cut_plot)

lay_grid(plots, cl)

PowerPoint support

Layouts created using customLayout package can be used to arrange elements on the PowerPoint slide. For the detailed description please refer to the vignette:

vignette("layouts-for-officer-power-point-document", package = "customLayout")

Comparison with other packages

customLayout vs patchwork vs cowplot:

Feature	customLayout	patchwork	cowplot
Base graphics support	Yes	No	No
ggplot2 support	Yes	Yes	Yes
PowerPoint export	Yes	No	No
Matrix-based specification	Yes	No	No
Operator syntax (+, /, |)	No	Yes	No
Auto panel labels	No	Yes	Yes
Legend collection	Manual	Yes	Manual
Inset plots	No	Yes	Yes
Aspect ratio preservation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Axis alignment	N/A	Yes	Yes

For a detailed comparison with examples, see the comparison vignette.