Save a ggplot (or other grid object) with sensible defaults

ggsave() is a convenient function for saving a plot. It defaults to saving the last plot that you displayed, using the size of the current graphics device. It also guesses the type of graphics device from the extension.

Usage

ggsave(
  filename,
  plot = last_plot(),
  device = NULL,
  path = NULL,
  scale = 1,
  width = NA,
  height = NA,
  units = c("in", "cm", "mm"),
  dpi = 300,
  limitsize = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

filename: File name to create on disk.
plot: Plot to save, defaults to last plot displayed.
device: Device to use (function or any of the recognized extensions, e.g. "pdf"). By default, extracted from filename extension. ggsave currently recognises eps/ps, tex (pictex), pdf, jpeg, tiff, png, bmp, svg and wmf (windows only).
path: Path to save plot to (combined with filename).
scale: Multiplicative scaling factor.
width, height: Plot dimensions, defaults to size of current graphics device.
units: Units for width and height when specified explicitly (in, cm, or mm)
dpi: Resolution used for raster outputs.
limitsize: When TRUE (the default), ggsave will not save images larger than 50x50 inches, to prevent the common error of specifying dimensions in pixels.
...: Other arguments passed on to graphics device

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point()

ggsave(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.pdf"))
ggsave(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.png"))

ggsave(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.pdf"), width = 4, height = 4)
ggsave(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.pdf"), width = 20, height = 20, units = "cm")

unlink(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.pdf"))
unlink(file.path(tempdir(), "mtcars.png"))

# specify device when saving to a file with unknown extension
# (for example a server supplied temporary file)
file <- tempfile()
ggsave(file, device = "pdf")
unlink(file)
} # }