From h.wickham at gmail.com  Thu Mar 13 23:15:12 2008
From: h.wickham at gmail.com (hadley wickham)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:15:12 -0500
Subject: [Rd] graphics defaults
In-Reply-To: <47D9A4F2.6030609@zoo.ufl.edu>
References: <47D9A4F2.6030609@zoo.ufl.edu>
Message-ID: <f8e6ff050803131515n29615162x8225050e787870e5@mail.gmail.com>

>    Can someone point me to a justification for the design
>  decisions, which seem to be similar in lattice and
>  ggplot2, of (1) gray backgrounds and (2) filled points?
>  [I seem to remember seeing somewhere the opposite recommendation
>  for points, i.e. that open points make it much easier to
>  see if there are overlapping values -- and this would
>  be a reason that pch=1 gives an open circle ...]

>From a paper I'm working on:

This follows from the advice of
\citet{tufte:2006,tufte:1990,tufte:2001,tufte:1997} and
\citet{brewer:1994,carr:2002,carr:1994,carr:1999}. We can still see
the gridlines to aid in judgement of position \citep{cleveland:1993a},
but they have little visual impact and we can easily ``tune'' them
out. The grey background gives the plot a similar colour (in a
typographical sense) to the remainder of the text, ensuring that the
graphics fit in with the flow of a text without jumping out with a
bright white background. Finally, the grey background creates a
continuous field of colour which ensures that the plot is perceived as
a single visual entity.

I can dig out the exact references if you need them.

Hadley

-- 
http://had.co.nz/



[Rd] graphics defaults
hadley wickham