R help - Oct 2009 - help with the use of mtext to create main title over multiple plots

I'm trying to use mtext to create a main title over multiple plots. Below is
a simple self-contained example and my sessionInfo (I should note I've also
tried this with R-2.8.1 with the same results). When I execute the code
chunk below, I get the plots, but no title. I've tried this using the screen
driver, pdf, and postscript. I've used different sizes of paper. I suspect I
am making an elementary error but searching the help files and help archives
hasn't provided me an answer.

Thanks for any help, Mark

#############################################
setwd("~/Desktop")
pdf("my.test.plots.pdf", paper = "letter")
par(mfrow=c(2,2))
for (i in 1:4){
  plot(1:6, 1:6)
}
mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 3, outer = TRUE)
dev.off()
#

R version 2.10.0 Under development (unstable) (2009-09-21 r49771)
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C
 [3] LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8
 [5] LC_MONETARY=C              LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
 [7] LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C
 [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] car_1.2-15

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_2.10.0

Mark W. Kimpel MD  ** Neuroinformatics ** Dept. of Psychiatry
Indiana University School of Medicine

15032 Hunter Court, Westfield, IN  46074

(317) 490-5129 Work, & Mobile & VoiceMail
(317) 399-1219 Skype No Voicemail please

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Try playing around with the "oma" setting in par() -- it sets the
outer margins, which by default are zero.

The following shows the mtext label for me, using the windows device:
> par(mfrow=c(2,2))
> par("oma")
[1] 0 0 0 0
> par("oma"=c(0,0,2,0))
> for (i in 1:4) plot(0:1,0:1)
> mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 3, outer = TRUE)
>
Mark Kimpel wrote:
> I'm trying to use mtext to create a main title over multiple plots.
Below is
> a simple self-contained example and my sessionInfo (I should note I've
also
> tried this with R-2.8.1 with the same results). When I execute the code
> chunk below, I get the plots, but no title. I've tried this using the
screen
> driver, pdf, and postscript. I've used different sizes of paper. I
suspect I
> am making an elementary error but searching the help files and help
archives
> hasn't provided me an answer.
> 
> Thanks for any help, Mark
> 
> #############################################
> setwd("~/Desktop")
> pdf("my.test.plots.pdf", paper = "letter")
> par(mfrow=c(2,2))
> for (i in 1:4){
>   plot(1:6, 1:6)
> }
> mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 3, outer = TRUE)
> dev.off()
> #
> 
> R version 2.10.0 Under development (unstable) (2009-09-21 r49771)
> x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
> 
> locale:
>  [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C
>  [3] LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8
>  [5] LC_MONETARY=C              LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
>  [7] LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C
>  [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C
> [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
> 
> other attached packages:
> [1] car_1.2-15
> 
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] tools_2.10.0
> 
> Mark W. Kimpel MD  ** Neuroinformatics ** Dept. of Psychiatry
> Indiana University School of Medicine
> 
> 15032 Hunter Court, Westfield, IN  46074
> 
> (317) 490-5129 Work, & Mobile & VoiceMail
> (317) 399-1219 Skype No Voicemail please
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

Mark Kimpel wrote:
> 
> I'm trying to use mtext to create a main title over multiple plots.
Below
> is
> a simple self-contained example and my sessionInfo (I should note I've
> also
> tried this with R-2.8.1 with the same results). When I execute the code
> 
> ...
> 
> 
> 
Thanks for your nice example showing the problem clearly. I normally prefer
to test these things in a window first, it's faster, though.

You had forgotten to give the poor graphics a bit of outer margin. If you
look carefully, you could have seen a few tail in the plot. The example
overreacts a bit, but you get the idea.
You might also reduce your plot margins a bit (see par) to avoid to large
empty space.

Dieter

par(mfrow=c(2,2),oma=c(10,10,10,10)
for (i in 1:4){
  plot(1:6, 1:6)
}
mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 1, outer = TRUE)

-- 
View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/help-with-the-use-of-mtext-to-create-main-title-over-multiple-plots-tp25859951p25860178.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Hey Mark,

The text is actually there -- I can just see the bottom of the 'y' and
the 'p' in my plotting window. You can move the text down (into the
plot) with the argument line. E.g.:

mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 3, outer = TRUE, line=-2)

Hope that helps...

-  
Simon Bonner
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Statistics, UBC

www.simon.bonners.ca


On Mon, 2009-10-12 at 13:29 -0400, Mark Kimpel wrote:
> mtext(text = "my test plots", side = 3, outer = TRUE)