How to save a plot as image on the disk

Question

I plot a simple linear regression using R  I would like to save that image as PNG or JPEG  is it possible to do it automatically   via code   There are two different questions  First  I am already looking at the plot on my monitor and I would like to save it as is  Second  I have not yet generated the plot  but I would like to directly save it to disk when I execute my plotting code

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To add to these answers  if you have an R script containing calls that generate plots to screen  the native device   then these can all be saved to a pdf file  the default device for a non-interactive shell   Rplots pdf   the default name  by redirecting the script into R from the terminal  assuming you are running linux or OS X   e g    R  lt  myscript R --no-save   This could be converted to jpg png as necessary

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If you open a device using png    bmp    pdf   etc  as suggested by Andrie  the best answer   the windows with plots will not pop up open  just   png   bmp or   pdf files will be created  This is convenient in massive calculations  since R can handle only limited number of graphic windows   However  if you want to see the plots and also have them saved  call savePlot filename  type  after the plots are drawn and the window containing them is active

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If you use ggplot2 the preferred way of saving is to use ggsave  First you have to plot  after creating the plot you call ggsave   ggplot      ggsave  plot png     The format of the image is determined by the extension you choose for the filename  Additional parameters can be passed to ggsave  notably width  height  and dpi

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Like this  png  filename png     make plot dev off     or this    sometimes plots do better in vector graphics svg  filename svg     make plot dev off     or this  pdf  filename pdf     make plot dev off     And probably others too  They re all listed together in the help pages

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For the first question  I find dev print to be the best when working interactively  First  you set up your plot visually and when you are happy with what you see  you can ask R to save the current plot to disk  dev print pdf  file  filename pdf      You can replace pdf with other formats such as png   This will copy the image exactly as you see it on screen  The problem with dev copy is that the image is often different and doesn t remember the window size and aspect ratio - it forces the plot to be square by default   For the second question   as others have already answered   you must direct the output to disk before you execute your plotting commands  pdf  filename pdf   plot  yourdata   points  some more data  dev off     to complete the writing process and return output to your monitor

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There are two closely-related questions  and an answer for each     1  An image will be generated in future in my script  how do I save it to disk   To save a plot  you need to do the following    Open a device  using png    bmp    pdf   or similar Plot your model Close the device using dev off     Some example code for saving the plot to a png file   fit  lt - lm some   model   png filename  your file location name png   plot fit  dev off     This is described in the  combined  help page for the graphical formats  png   bmp   jpeg and  tiff as well as in the separate help page for  pdf   Note however that the image might look different on disk to the same plot directly plotted to your screen  for example if you have resized the on-screen window     Note that if your plot is made by either lattice or ggplot2 you have to explicitly print the plot   See this answer that explains this in more detail and also links to the R FAQ  ggplot  39 s qplot does not execute on sourcing    2  I m currently looking at a plot on my screen and I want to copy it  as-is  to disk   dev print pdf   filename pdf     This should copy the image perfectly  respecting any resizing you have done to the interactive window  You can  as in the first part of this answer  replace pdf with other filetypes such as png

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In some cases one wants to both save and print a base r plot  I spent a bit of time and came up with this utility function   x   1 10  basesave   function expr  filename  print T       extension   exten   stringr  str match filename         w        2     switch exten           png                png filename             eval expr  envir   parent frame               dev off                         stop  filetype not recognized          print    if  print  eval expr  envir   parent frame       invisible NULL      plots  but doesn t save plot x    saves  but doesn t plot png  test png   plot x  dev off     both basesave quote plot x     test png     works with pipe too quote plot x     gt   basesave  test png     Note that one must use quote  otherwise the plot x  call is run in the global environment and NULL gets passed to basesave

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plotpath lt - file path path   PLOT name  paste  plot   file   png  sep       png filename plotpath   plot x y  main  file   dev off

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If you want to keep seeing the plot in R  another option is to use dev copy    X11    plot  x y   dev copy jpeg filename  plot jpg    dev off       If you reach a clutter of too many plot windows in R  use graphics off   to close all of the plot windows

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If you use R Studio http   rstudio org  there is a special menu to save you plot as any format you like and at any resolution you choose

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dev copy png  path pngFile png   plot YData   XData  data   mydata  dev off

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