R help - Oct 2004 - par() defaults in Rprofile

Dear List,

I've tried to set default par() in .Rprofile by putting the following in
the .First function:

  setHook(packageEvent("graphics", "onLoad"),
          function(...) {graphics::par(cex.axis=1.5, cex.lab=2, las=1)}
          )

My goal was to set par() defaults without opening a device everytime at
startup. However, the next plot I create doesn't show these defaults. Any
suggestions? Thanks in advance.

OS = GNU/Linux Debian
R version = 2.0
-- 
Best wishes,
Sebastian

Sebastian Luque wrote:
> Dear List,
> 
> I've tried to set default par() in .Rprofile by putting the following
in
> the .First function:
> 
>   setHook(packageEvent("graphics", "onLoad"),
>           function(...) {graphics::par(cex.axis=1.5, cex.lab=2, las=1)}
>           )
> 
> My goal was to set par() defaults without opening a device everytime at
> startup. However, the next plot I create doesn't show these defaults.
Any
> suggestions? Thanks in advance.
> 
> OS = GNU/Linux Debian
> R version = 2.0

The par settings are for the current device. You have to apply them 
after a device has been opened.

What you want is a device function like

mydevice() that opens a device and sets the par() stuff, I guess.

Uwe Ligges

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004, Sebastian Luque wrote:
> Dear List,
> 
> I've tried to set default par() in .Rprofile by putting the following
in
> the .First function:
> 
>   setHook(packageEvent("graphics", "onLoad"),
>           function(...) {graphics::par(cex.axis=1.5, cex.lab=2, las=1)}
>           )
> 
> My goal was to set par() defaults without opening a device everytime at
> startup. However, the next plot I create doesn't show these defaults.
Any
> suggestions? Thanks in advance.
par() only applies to the current device.  You will have to specify your 
own customized device, something like

X11 <- function(...)
{
    grDevices::X11(...)
    par(cex.axis=1.5, cex.lab=2, las=1)
}

perhaps?  (Namespace issues might defeat you here.)

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595