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Save a ggplot at HVTI manuscript defaults

Source: R/save-manuscript.R
save_manuscript.Rd

A thin wrapper around ggplot2::ggsave() that enforces the house manuscript figure size — 6 inches wide by 4 inches tall — so journal figures come out at a consistent size in one call. It is the manuscript counterpart of save_ppt(), which enforces the slide panel box.

Usage

save_manuscript(
  plot,
  file,
  width = 6,
  height = 4,
  units = "in",
  device = NULL,
  dpi = 300,
  draft_file = NULL,
  draft_dpi = NULL,
  ...
)

Arguments

plot

A ggplot2::ggplot() object, e.g. plot(hv_*()) finished with theme_hv_manuscript().

file

Output file path. Its extension sets the format (.pdf, .png, ...).

width, height, units

Figure size. Default 6 x 4 "in" — the HVTI manuscript default.

device

Graphics device. NULL (default) lets ggplot2 pick from the file extension. For font embedding in a PDF, pass grDevices::cairo_pdf (requires cairo/X11 support).

dpi

Resolution for raster formats. Default 300.

draft_file

Optional second output file path (typically .png). When supplied, an additional raster copy of plot is written here at the same width/height/units, for dragging into a Word draft manuscript. Default NULL (no draft copy written).

draft_dpi

Resolution for draft_file. Default NULL, which falls back to dpi.

...

Further arguments passed to ggplot2::ggsave() for the primary file. Not applied to draft_file.

Value

Invisibly, the file path.

Details

Pair it with theme_hv_manuscript(), whose 12 pt base_size supplies the manuscript typography. Like save_ppt(), save_manuscript() fixes the output geometry, not the theme — style the plot first, then save.

The device is inferred from the file extension by default. For a .pdf where you want fonts embedded (so 12 pt type renders exactly as designed), pass device = grDevices::cairo_pdf — on a system with cairo/X11 support.

Publisher-accepted formats — vector (PDF, EPS) or TIFF (a raster format also accepted by journals) — often produce large or fragile files when dragged into a Word manuscript — Word has no native PDF-as-picture support and silently converts them to bloated, sometimes unreadable EMF. Pass draft_file (typically a .png path) to also write a small raster copy alongside file in the same call: keep file as the publisher deliverable actually submitted to the journal, and drag draft_file into the Word draft instead.

See also

save_ppt() for slides, theme_hv_manuscript() for the 12 pt typography, hv_ggsave_dims() for fixed-panel sizing. Worked examples live in the HVTI ggplot graphics recipes book, https://ehrlinger.github.io/hvti_graphics/.

Examples

# \donttest{
p <- plot(hv_survival(sample_survival_data(n = 200, seed = 42))) +
  theme_hv_manuscript()
save_manuscript(p, file.path(tempdir(), "survival.pdf"))

# also write a small draft PNG for dragging into Word
save_manuscript(p, file.path(tempdir(), "survival.pdf"),
                 draft_file = file.path(tempdir(), "survival_draft.png"))
# }