magicaxis (version 1.6)

magaxis: Magically pretty axes

Description

This function generates nicely arranged axes for scientific plots, including minor tick marks. It supports log settings and can unclog axes that have been logged inline by the user. When the dynamic range is 50 or less and axis is logged, axis range factors of 10 times 1, 2 and 5 are used instead of powers of 10 alone.

Usage

magaxis(side=1:4, majorn=5, minorn=5, tcl=0.5, ratio=0.5, labels=TRUE,
unlog='Auto', tline=0.5, mtline=2, xlab=NULL, ylab=NULL, box=FALSE,
crunch=TRUE, logpretty=TRUE, prettybase=10, hersh=FALSE, family='sans',...)

Arguments

side

The side to be used for axis labelling in the same sense as the base axis function. Multiple entries are allowed. If blank all 4 axes are drawn.

majorn

The target number of major-axis sub-divisions for pretty plotting. If length is 1 and length of side is longer than this value is used for all axes. If length of arguments is longer than 1 then these should tally with the relevant axes in side. Obvious re

minorn

The target number of minor-axis sub-divisions for pretty plotting. If length is 1 and length of side is longer than this value is used for all axes. If length of arguments is longer than 1 then these should tally with the relevant axes in side. Obvious re

tcl

The length of major ticks. By default these face into the plot (in common with scientific plotting).

ratio

Ratio of minor to major tick mark lengths.

labels

Specifies whether major-axis ticks should be labelled for each axis. If length is 1 and length of side is longer than this value is used for all axes. If length of arguments is longer than 1 then these should tally with the relevant axes in side. Default

unlog

Determines if axis labels should be unlogged. If axis is found to be logged in par('usr') then the minor ticks are automatically log spaced, however "unlog" still controls how the labelling is done: either logged form (FALSE) or exponent form (TRUE). If a

tline

Number of lines separating labels from axis.

mtline

Number of lines separating axis name from axis.

xlab

x axis name.

ylab

y axis name.

box

Should a box be added around the plotting region.

crunch

In cases where the scientific text would be written as 1x10^8, should the 1x be removed so it reads 10^8. TRUE by default. If length is 1 and length of side is longer then this value is used for all axes. If length of arguments is longer than 1 then these

logpretty

Should the major-ticks only be located at powers of 10. This changes cases where ticks are placed at 1, 3.1, 10, 31, 100 etc to 1, 10, 100. If length is 1 and length of side is longer then this value is used for all axes. If length of arguments is longer

prettybase

The unit of repitition desired. By default it is 10, implying a pretty plot is one with marks at 10, 20, 30 etc. If you are plotting degrees then it might be prettier to display 90, 180, 270 etc. In which case prettybase should be set to 90. If log=TRUE t

hersh

To determines whether all plot text should be passed using Hershey vector fonts. This applies to the axis labels (which are handled automatically) and the axes names. In the case of axis names the user must be careful to use the correct plot utils escape

family

Specifies the plotting family to be used. Allowed options are 'sans' and 'serif'. Depending on whether hersh is TRUE or FALSE these otions are either applied to the Hershey vector fonts (hersh=TRUE) or the default R Helvetica font (hersh=FALSE). magaxis w

...

Other arguments to be passed to base axis function.

Value

• No output. Run for the side effect of producing nice plotting axes.

Details

This function tries hard to make nice plots for scientific papers.

See Also

magplot,maglab,magerr,magmap,magrun

Examples

x=10^{1:9}
y=1:9
plot(log10(x),y,axes=FALSE)
magaxis(unlog='x')

plot(log10(x),y,axes=FALSE)
magaxis(side=c(1,3),unlog=c(TRUE,FALSE))

plot(x,y,axes=FALSE,log='x')
magaxis()