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Translate, scale, and rotate ggplot2 layers (Layer operation)

Source: R/class-operation-affine-transform.R, R/operation-affine-transform.R
affine_transform.Rd

Transform objects within a single layer (geom) or across multiple layers (geoms) using affine transformations, like translation, scale, and rotation. Uses the built-in compositing support in graphical devices added in R 4.2.

Usage

affine_transform(object, x = 0, y = 0, width = 1, height = 1, angle = 0)

Arguments

object

One of:

  • A layer-like object: applies this operation to the layer.

  • A missing argument: creates an operation

  • A numeric() or unit() giving the x-axis translation, which takes the place of the x argument.

x

A numeric() or unit() giving the x translation to apply.

y

A numeric() or unit() giving the y translation to apply.

width

A numeric() or unit() giving the width.

height

A numeric() or unit() giving the height.

angle

A numeric() giving the angle to rotate, in degrees.

Value

A layer-like object (if object is layer-like) or an operation (if not).

Details

Applies an affine transformation (translation, scaling, rotation) to a layer.

Note: due to limitations in the implementation of scaling and rotation, currently these operations can only be performed relative to the center of the plot. In future versions, the translation and rotation origin may be configurable.

Supported devices

Transformation is not currently supported by all graphics devices. As of this writing, at least png(type = "cairo"), svg(), and cairo_pdf() are known to support blending.

affine_transform() attempts to auto-detect support for affine transformation using dev.capabilities(). You may receive a warning when using affine_transform() if it appears transformation is not supported by the current graphics device. This warning either means (1) your graphics device does not support transformation (in which case you should switch to one that does) or (2) your graphics device supports transformation but incorrectly reports that it does not. Unfortunately, not all graphics devices that support transformation appear to correctly report that they support transformation, so even if auto-detection fails, blend() will still attempt to apply the transformation, just in case.

If the warning is issued and the output is still correctly transformed, this is likely a bug in the graphics device. You can report the bug to the authors of the graphics device if you wish; in the mean time, you can use options(ggblend.check_affine_transform = FALSE) to disable the check.

References

Murrell, Paul (2021): Groups, Compositing Operators, and Affine Transformations in R Graphics. The University of Auckland. Report. doi:10.17608/k6.auckland.17009120.v1 .

See also

operation for a description of layer operations.

Other layer operations: adjust, blend, copy, nop, partition()

Examples

old_options = options(ggblend.check_affine_transform = FALSE)
library(ggplot2)

# a simple dataset:
set.seed(1234)
data.frame(x = rnorm(100), y = rnorm(100)) |>
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point() +
  xlim(-5, 5)


# we could scale and translate copies of the point cloud
# (though I'm not sure why...)
data.frame(x = rnorm(100), y = rnorm(100)) |>
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point() * (
    affine_transform(x = -unit(100, "pt"), width = 0.5) |> adjust(color = "red") +
    affine_transform(width = 0.5) +
    affine_transform(x = unit(100, "pt"), width = 0.5) |> adjust(color = "blue")
  ) +
  xlim(-5, 5)

options(old_options)