R help - Aug 2008 - reverse orientation of text in plot margins

Dear R users,

I am trying to reverse the orientation of axis labels and title in the right
margin of a plot, so that they read from top to bottom. I know that this can be
done using text() as follows:

par(mar=c(5,4,4,4)+.1)
plot(1:4,las=0)
par(new=T)
y <- rnorm(4)
plot(y,axes=FALSE,ann=FALSE,pch=17)
axis(4,labels=FALSE)
par(xpd=TRUE)
text(x=par("usr")[2]+.25,y=axTicks(4),labels=axTicks(4),srt=-90)
text(x=par("usr")[2]+.5,y=sum(par("usr")[3:4])/2,labels="titel",srt=-90)
par(xpd=FALSE)

the problem is that I have to manually reset the x and y coordinates of the text
whenever the plot is resized. This is problematic if I want to automatize the
production of a number of plots (or produce different output formats), or to
make sure that the labels and title in the right axis are at an equal distance
from the plot as the labels and title on the left axis. Now I can only guess it
on sight.

mtext() allows me to set the distance, but not to reverse the orientation of the
text.

I could use text() to also produce the left axis, like that labels on both sides
can be at the exact same distance from the plot, but then I want to determine
the plot margins relative to the plot dimensions.

Does anyone see a solution to my problem that doesn't involve trial and
error for the x coordinate?

thanks
Karel



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On Wed, 13-Aug-2008 at 06:32PM +0200, Karel Van den Meersche wrote:

|> 
|> Dear R users,
|> 

|> I am trying to reverse the orientation of axis labels and title in
|> the right margin of a plot, so that they read from top to bottom. I
|> know that this can be done using text() as follows:

|> par(mar=c(5,4,4,4)+.1)
|> plot(1:4,las=0)
|> par(new=T)
|> y <- rnorm(4)
|> plot(y,axes=FALSE,ann=FALSE,pch=17)
|> axis(4,labels=FALSE)

I think it would be easiest to work out values for at and labels in
this statement.  ?axis.

HTH

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