R help - Jan 2003 - key in margin area

Hi
Is there any way to position a key (legend) outside the plot area? i.e. in 
the margin between plot area and page margin. I realise I could achieve the 
same effect by creating a larger plot but not printing the axes and then 
draw the smaller axes independantly leaving room for the key. However, that 
wont work very well in my particular case.
Thanks in advance
Jeremy

Well, if you don't want to play with the margins, then I guess you have
to use the layout() function. You will want something similar to the
following if you want legends at the right:

def.par <- par(no.readonly = TRUE)# save default
nf <- layout( matrix( c(1,2), nrow=1), c(4,1) ) # If you want legend at
bottom, change nrow to ncol
layout.show(nf) #  so the ratio of plot to legend area is 4:1

par(mar=c(1,1,1,1))
plot.new()                 # calls an empty plot
legend( 0, 0.5, "A spot", pch=1, col=1)
par(def.par)   # reset to default

There might be a nicer way of doing this though.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Z Butler [mailto:jerrytheshrub at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 11:17 AM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] key in margin area


Hi
Is there any way to position a key (legend) outside the plot area? i.e.
in 
the margin between plot area and page margin. I realise I could achieve
the 
same effect by creating a larger plot but not printing the axes and then

draw the smaller axes independantly leaving room for the key. However,
that 
wont work very well in my particular case.
Thanks in advance
Jeremy
______________________________________________
R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help

Jeremy Z Butler wrote:
> Hi
> Is there any way to position a key (legend) outside the plot area? i.e. 
> in the margin between plot area and page margin. I realise I could 
> achieve the same effect by creating a larger plot but not printing the 
> axes and then draw the smaller axes independantly leaving room for the 
> key. However, that wont work very well in my particular case.
You might want to extend the margins. See ?par for details, particularly 
look for arguments 'mar' and 'oma'.
After
  par(xpd = TRUE)    # Again, see ?par
you can plot a legend into the margins.

Uwe Ligges