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Asked: 2026-05-18T21:19:21+00:00

I use the gplots package to output barplots. I use it inside a for-loop,

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I use the gplots package to output barplots. I use it inside a for-loop, so rest of the code is omitted to make it more clear:

library("gplots")
pdf(file = "/Users/Tim/desktop/pgax.pdf", onefile = TRUE, paper = "special")
par(mfrow = c(4,2)) #figures arranged in 2 rows and 2 columns
par(las=2) #perpendicular labels on x-axis

barplot2(expression,ylab = expression(expression),main = graph.header, cex.names =0.85, beside = TRUE, offset = 0, xpd = FALSE,axis.lty = 0, cex.axis = 0.85, plot.ci = TRUE,ci.l = expression - sd.value, ci.u = expression + sd.value, col = colors,width = 1,names.arg = c(etc))

Now when I specify the papersize at a4, and print out in two columns the bars are made so they fill up the full space assigned. If I only have a few bars in each graws, the width is too big compared to the height. I know I should be using xlimit and width = amongst and perhaps even the aspect ratio?, but I can’t get the results I wanted. And unconvenient way is to specify the height and width output of the paper, and manually I adjust it for the number of bars in the plots each time. But this doesnt seem appropiate. Does someone know a convenient way to fix width bars in my plots?

All help is much appreciated!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Although bar plots with wide bars can look silly, a wide bar plot with a few narrow bars in it will likely look even sillier. That leaves you specifying the width of the plot (via the width argument to pdf).

    It may be prettiest to keep all your plots the same size, in which case you just give width a fixed value. If you do want narrower plots when there are less bars, you need a line of code like

    plot_width <- 3 + 0.5 * nlevels(x_variable)
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