Open In App

How to Fix in R: error in plot.new() : figure margins too large

Improve
Improve
Like Article
Like
Save
Share
Report

In this article, we will discuss how to fix the “figure margins too large” error in plot.new() function of the R programming language.

The error that one may face in R is:

Error in plot.new() : figure margins too large

The R compiler produces this error when the plot panel of Rstudio is small for the dimensions of the plot that we are trying to create.

When this error might occur:

Consider that want to create a plot using the plot() function in R. The syntax of this function is given below:

Syntax:

plot(start : end)

Parameters:

  • start: The starting point ( 1 for (x, y) = (1, 1) etc)
  • end: The ending point ( 5 for (x, y) = (5, 5) etc)

Return Type:

Draws dots in a sequence on both x and y axis

Example:

R




# Draw a plot
plot(1:40)


Output:

The R compiler produces the error (you can see the panel window is quite small at the right).

How to fix this error:

There are three ways to fix this error in R:

Method 1: Increasing the size of the panel

One way is to increase the panel size so that it can accommodate the plot across its dimensions:

R




# Draw a plot
plot(1:40)


Output:

Method  2: Using par() function

The par() function in R is used to set the margins of a plot. This function has the following syntax:

Syntax:

 par(mfrow)

Parameter:

mfrow:  It represents a vector with row and column values for the grid

By default a plot has the following margins:

  • Top: 4.1 and Bottom: 5.1
  • Left: 4.1 and Right: 2.1

We need to explicitly set the margins of the plot as:

R




# Set plot margins
par(mar = c(1, 1, 1, 1))
  
# Create the plot
plot(1 : 40)


Output:

The plot was projected easily in the panel window because we reduced the margin to accommodate the created plot.

Method 3: Turn off the plotting device

If neither of the previous methods was able to fix the error then you can shut down the current plotting device by the following command:

R




# Turn off the device
dev.off()


Output:



Last Updated : 28 Mar, 2022
Like Article
Save Article
Previous
Next
Share your thoughts in the comments
Similar Reads