R help - Jun 2007 - Subscript in axis label

Dear R help list members,

I am experiencing difficulty in trying to generate a subscript '2' in an
axis label. Although I can get the '2' into a subscript using
expression(),
R then forces me to leave at least one space between the '2' and the 
following character. My label is supposed to read 'N2O concentration 
(ppm)', and the space between the '2' and the 'O' makes it
look rather
inelegant! My code is the following (the comments in it are there to stop 
me forgetting what I have done, I am new to R):

postscript(file="/Users/patrickmartin/Documents/York Innova 
Precision/N2Oinnova.eps", horizontal=FALSE, onefile=FALSE, height=4, 
width=5, pointsize=10)
> plot(n2o, lty=0, las=1, xlab="Time", ylab=expression(N[2]~"O
> concentration (ppm)")) points(n2o, pch=16) # suppresses line but adds 
> points dev.off() # turns postscript device off again
One possibility is for me to simply leave two spaces everywhere else, but 
that looks a little strange. Does anyone know of a more elegant way of 
solving the problem?

A related query is that the journal I want to publish this figure in 
specifies that if EPS format is used, the font should be either Arial, 
Courier, Helvetica, Times or Symbol. Is one of these the default font for 
an EPS file in R, and if not, is there a possibility of changing it?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Patrick Martin

pm509 at york.ac.uk wrote:
> Dear R help list members,
> 
> I am experiencing difficulty in trying to generate a subscript '2'
in an
> axis label. Although I can get the '2' into a subscript using
expression(),
> R then forces me to leave at least one space between the '2' and
the
> following character. My label is supposed to read 'N2O concentration 
> (ppm)', and the space between the '2' and the 'O' makes
it look rather
> inelegant! My code is the following (the comments in it are there to stop 
> me forgetting what I have done, I am new to R):
> 
> postscript(file="/Users/patrickmartin/Documents/York Innova 
> Precision/N2Oinnova.eps", horizontal=FALSE, onefile=FALSE, height=4, 
> width=5, pointsize=10)
>> plot(n2o, lty=0, las=1, xlab="Time",
ylab=expression(N[2]~"O
>> concentration (ppm)")) points(n2o, pch=16) # suppresses line but
adds
>> points dev.off() # turns postscript device off again
Is this better

plot(1:10, ylab = expression(paste(N[2],"O concentration (ppm)",
                              sep = "")))

?

HTH,
Tobias

-- 

Tobias Verbeke - Consultant
Business & Decision Benelux
Rue de la r?volution 8
1000 Brussels - BELGIUM

+32 499 36 33 15
tobias.verbeke at businessdecision.com

pm509 at york.ac.uk wrote:
> Dear R help list members,
<snip>
> A related query is that the journal I want to publish this figure in 
> specifies that if EPS format is used, the font should be either Arial, 
> Courier, Helvetica, Times or Symbol. Is one of these the default font for 
> an EPS file in R, and if not, is there a possibility of changing it?
See ?postscript and in particular the family argument the details of
which are treated in the Families section.

HTH,
Tobias

-- 

Tobias Verbeke - Consultant
Business & Decision Benelux
Rue de la r?volution 8
1000 Brussels - BELGIUM

+32 499 36 33 15
tobias.verbeke at businessdecision.com