library("gridpattern")
To develop a pattern for use with {gridpattern}
(and packages that use it such as {ggpattern}
) you will need to:
options()
to let {gridpattern}
know that a certain pattern name should be delegated to your function.This vignette shows how to:
create_pattern()
function of the correct signature for a geometry-based pattern or array-based pattern{gridpattern}
on where to find this user-defined patternThere are only 2 high-level classes of pattern supported by gridpattern
- geometry-based and array-based.
Geometry-based patterns create a series of geometry objects and trim them (using sf::st_intersection()
, gridGeometry::polyclipGrob()
, gridpattern::clippingPathGrob()
, etc) to be within the boundary of the grob. For example, the ‘stripes’ pattern in gridpattern
is a series of equally spaced rectangular polygons.
Array-based patterns are RGBA image arrays. Any supplied image will be processed by gridpattern
to ensure it is masked to only apply to the area within the grob’s boundary.
{ggpattern}
Aesthetics - Descriptions and DefaultsAlthough custom {gridpattern}
pattern parameters need not limit itself to the set of aesthetics provided by {ggpattern}
doing so may make your pattern more useful for others:
{ggpattern}
aesthetic summary - click to open/close
aesthetic | description | default | possible values |
---|---|---|---|
pattern |
Name of the pattern to draw | ‘stripe’ | gridpattern::names_pattern |
pattern_alpha |
Alpha | 1 | value in range [0, 1] or NA |
pattern_angle |
Rotation angle (entire pattern) | 30 | angle in degrees |
pattern_aspect_ratio |
Aspect ratio adjustment | NA | usual range [0.01, 10] |
pattern_colour |
Stroke colour | ‘grey20’ | colour |
pattern_density |
Approx. fraction of area the pattern fills | 0.2 | value in range [0, 1] |
pattern_filename |
Image filename/URL | ’’ | Filename/URL |
pattern_fill2 |
Second fill colour | ‘#4169E1’ | colour |
pattern_fill |
Fill colour | ‘grey80’ | colour |
pattern_filter |
Image scaling filter | ‘lanczos’ | magick::filter_types |
pattern_frequency |
Frequency | 0.1 | |
pattern_gravity |
Image placement | ‘center’ | magick::gravity_types |
pattern_grid |
Pattern grid type | ‘square’ | ‘square’, ‘hex’, ‘hex_circle’ |
pattern_key_scale_factor |
Scale factor for pattern in legend | 1 | |
pattern_linetype |
Stroke linetype | 1 | linetype |
pattern_linewidth |
Stroke linewidth | 1 | linewidth |
pattern_option_1 - 5 |
Generic options for expansion | 0 | |
pattern_orientation |
Orientation | ‘vertical’ | ‘vertical’, ‘horizontal’, ‘radial’ |
pattern_phase |
Phase | 0 | |
pattern_res |
Pattern resolution (pixels per inch) | NA | |
pattern_rot |
Rotation angle (shape within pattern) | 0 | angle in degrees |
pattern_scale |
Scale | 1 | Multiplier |
pattern_shape |
Plotting shape | 1 | shapes |
pattern_size |
Size factor (e.g. fontsize) | 1 | fontsize |
pattern_spacing |
Spacing between repetitions of pattern | 0.05 | value in range [0, 1] (snpc units) |
pattern_subtype |
Generic control option | NA | pattern-dependent |
pattern_type |
Generic control option | NA | pattern-dependent |
pattern_xoffset |
Shift pattern along x axis | 0 | value in range [0, 1] (snpc units) |
pattern_yoffset |
Shift pattern along y axis | 0 | value in range [0, 1] (snpc units) |
Note {ggpattern}
may also pass other geom aesthetics of possible interest such as fill
. Also note that {ggpattern}
will only pass pattern aesthetics values of length one but if the pattern is called directly by gridpattern::patternGrob()
then the pattern may be passed pattern parameters of arbitrary length.
All geometry-based pattern creation functions must:
Have the exact function signature: function(params, boundary_df, aspect_ratio, legend)
params
- parameters for the pattern (the aesthetics) e.g pattern_fill
boundary_df
- data.frame containing polygon information i.e. The polygon_df
format.aspect_ratio
- the best guess that {gridpattern}
/ {ggpattern}
is able to make as to the aspect ratio of the viewport in which this pattern is being rendered.legend
logical value to indicate whether or not this function is being called to render a key legend or the in-place geom fill.Return a grid grob object. This can be any valid grob including a grid::grobTree()
. The user should make sure it lies within the boundary represented by boundary_df
either by clipping with functions like sf::st_intersection()
, gridGeometry::polyclipGrob()
, gridpattern::clippingPathGrob()
, etc. or using bounded grob functions like gridpattern::patternGrob()
or grid::polygonGrob()
.
All array-based pattern creation functions must:
function(width, height, params, legend)
width,height
- dimensions of the bounding box of the geom areaparams
- parameters from the geom (the aesthetics) e.g pattern_fill
legend
logical value to indicate whether or not this function is being called to render a key legend or the in-place geom fill.gridpattern
itself will mask this image so that it only applies to the area within the grob’s boundary.polygon_df
data.frame formatThe polygon_df
is a very simple data.frame format to contain polygon values. This is used to pass the coordinates of the geom boundary from the geom to the pattern generating function.
It contains only ‘x’ and ‘y’ columns for the coordinates, and an ‘id’ column used to signify which polygon the coordinates belong to.
The following polygon_df
data.frame contains 2 polygons:
x | y | id |
---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 1 |
1 | 0 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 2 |
2 | 0 | 2 |
2 | 1 | 2 |
0 | 1 | 2 |
{gridpattern}
pattern nameThere are two global option()
values which can be set - one for geometry-based patterns, and the other for array-based patterns.
The global values should point to a named list, where the names are the pattern names you want to use within {gridpattern}
, and the named values are the actual functions. Note for backwards-compatibility with the original {ggpattern}
system these options start with ggpattern
instead of gridpattern
.
options(ggpattern_array_funcs = list(your_pattern_name = your_pattern_function))
options(ggpattern_geometry_funcs = list(your_pattern_name = your_pattern_function))
Pattern names must be different from any of the builtin patterns included in {gridpattern}
.
All geometry-based pattern creation functions must:
function(params, boundary_df, aspect_ratio, legend)
params
- parameters from the geom (the aesthetics) e.g pattern_fill
boundary_df
- data.frame containing polygon information i.e. The polygon_df
format.aspect_ratio
- the best guess that {gridpattern}
/ {ggpattern}
is able to make as to the aspect ratio of the viewport in which this pattern is being rendered.legend
logical value to indicate whether or not this function is being called to render a key legend or the in-place geom fill.boundary_df
(including grid structures like a grid::grobTree()
).For this example we’ll create a simple single color fill pattern based on grid::polygonGrob()
called ‘polygon’.
function(params, boundary_df, aspect_ratio, legend = FALSE) {
create_pattern_polygon <- boundary_df$x
x <- boundary_df$y
y <- boundary_df$id
id <-
ifelse(is.na(params$pattern_alpha), 1, params$pattern_alpha)
alpha <- grid::gpar(alpha = alpha,
gp <-col = params$pattern_colour,
fill = params$pattern_fill,
lty = params$pattern_linetype,
lwd = params$pattern_linewidth)
::polygonGrob(x = x, y = y, id = id, default.units = "npc", gp = gp)
grid }
A global option ggpattern_geometry_funcs
is a named list which contains geometry-based pattern creating functions to use outside of ggpattern
.
The name used in this list corresponds to the pattern
name used with the geom - in this case we will be using pattern = 'polygon'
.
options(ggpattern_geometry_funcs = list(polygon = create_pattern_polygon))
grid.pattern("polygon", fill = "red", size = 4, linetype = "dashed",
x = c(0.05, 0.05, 0.305, 0.305), y = c(0.05, 0.305, 0.305, 0.05))
grid.pattern("polygon", fill = "green", alpha = 0.2,
x = c(0.35, 0.35, 0.65, 0.65), y = c(0.35, 0.65, 0.65, 0.35))
grid.pattern("polygon", fill = "blue", colour = "grey",
x = c(0.7, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0), y = c(0.7, 1.0, 1.0, 0.7))
All geometry-based pattern creation functions must:
function(params, boundary_df, aspect_ratio, legend)
params
- parameters from the geom (the aesthetics) e.g pattern_fill
boundary_df
- data.frame containing polygon information i.e. The polygon_df
format.aspect_ratio
- the best guess that {gridpattern}
/ {ggpattern}
is able to make as to the aspect ratio of the viewport in which this pattern is being rendered.legend
logical value to indicate whether or not this function is being called to render a key legend or the in-place geom fill.boundary_df
(including grid structures like a grid::grobTree()
).For this example we’ll create an example that re-uses the pre-existing ‘stripe’, ‘circle’, and ‘gradient’ patterns and combines them into a new ‘complex’ pattern.
function(params, boundary_df, aspect_ratio, legend = FALSE) {
create_pattern_complex <- as.list(params)
args <- args[grep("^pattern_", names(args))]
args <-$x <- boundary_df$x
args$y <- boundary_df$y
args$id <- boundary_df$id
args$prefix <- ""
args
args
args_stripe <-$pattern <- "stripe"
args_stripe$pattern_density <- 0.5 * args$pattern_density
args_stripe$pattern_spacing <- 2 * args$pattern_spacing
args_stripe do.call(gridpattern::patternGrob, args_stripe)
grob_stripe <-
args
args_circle <-$pattern <- "regular_polygon"
args_circle$pattern_shape <- c("circle", "null")
args_circle$pattern_yoffset <- args$pattern_spacing + args$pattern_yoffset
args_circle$pattern_type = "horizontal"
args_circle do.call(gridpattern::patternGrob, args_circle)
grob_circle <-
args
args_gradient <-$pattern <- "gradient"
args_gradient$pattern_fill <- "#00000070"
args_gradient$pattern_fill2 <- "#FFFFFF70"
args_gradient$pattern_orientation <- "vertical"
args_gradient do.call(gridpattern::patternGrob, args_gradient)
grob_gradient <-
::grobTree(grob_stripe, grob_circle, grob_gradient)
grid }
A global option ggpattern_geometry_funcs
is a named list which contains geometry-based pattern creating functions to use outside of ggpattern
.
The name used in this list corresponds to the pattern
name used with the geom - in this case we will be using pattern = 'complex'
.
options(ggpattern_geometry_funcs = list(complex = create_pattern_complex))
grid.pattern("complex", fill = "red", angle = 45, spacing = 0.05, density = 0.3,
x = c(0.0, 0.0, 0.3, 0.3), y = c(0.0, 0.3, 0.3, 0.0))
grid.pattern("complex", fill = "green", angle = 45, spacing = 0.2, density = 0.2,
x = c(0.35, 0.35, 0.65, 0.65), y = c(0.35, 0.65, 0.65, 0.35))
grid.pattern("complex", fill = "blue", angle = 45, spacing = 0.1, density = 0.3,
x = c(0.7, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0), y = c(0.7, 1.0, 1.0, 0.7))
::grid.polygon(x = c(0.0, 0.0, 0.3, 0.3, 0.35, 0.35, 0.65, 0.65, 0.7, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0),
gridy = c(0.0, 0.3, 0.3, 0.0, 0.35, 0.65, 0.65, 0.35, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0, 0.7),
id = rep(1:3, each = 4),
gp = grid::gpar(col = "black", fill = NA, lwd=4))
All array-based pattern creation functions must:
function(width, height, params, legend)
width,height
- dimensions of the bounding box of the geom areaparams
- parameters from the geom (the aesthetics) e.g pattern_fill
legend
logical value to indicate whether or not this function is being called to render a key legend or the in-place geom fill.For this example we’ll create a simple example that cycles through RGBA values.
Parameters for this pattern:
pattern_type
is used to distinguish between source data for the patternNote: This pattern exploits vector recyling in the creation of the RGBA array, and as dimensions change the alignment of the R, G, B and A planes will not remain in a fixed relationship. Thus if you change the shape of the rendered image, you will change the nature of the pattern.
function(width, height, params, legend) {
create_pattern_simple <-
# Ensure the selected pattern is sane.
params$pattern_type
choice <-if (is.null(choice) || is.na(choice) || !is.character(choice)) {
'a'
choice <-
}
# Choose the values with which to fill the array
switch(
values <-
choice,a = rep(c(0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1), each = 3),
b = rep(c(1, 0, 0, 1, 0.5, 0.5, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.5), each = 7),
c = rep(seq(0, 1, 0.05), each = 7),
rep(c(0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1), each = 3)
)# Create an RGBA array of the requested dimensions
array(values, dim = c(height, width, 4))
simple_array <-
simple_array }
A global option ggpattern_array_funcs
is a named list which contains geometry-based pattern creating functions to use outside of ggpattern
.
The name used in this list corresponds to the pattern
name used with the geom - in this case we will be using pattern = 'simple'
.
options(ggpattern_array_funcs = list(simple = create_pattern_simple))
::grid.polygon(x = c(0, 0, 1, 1), y = c(0, 1, 1, 0),
gridgp = grid::gpar(col=NA, fill="grey"))
grid.pattern("simple", type = "a",
x = c(0.0, 0.0, 0.3, 0.3), y = c(0.0, 0.3, 0.3, 0.0))
grid.pattern("simple", type = "b",
x = c(0.35, 0.35, 0.65, 0.65), y = c(0.35, 0.65, 0.65, 0.35))
grid.pattern("simple", type = "c",
x = c(0.7, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0), y = c(0.7, 1.0, 1.0, 0.7))
The {ggpattern}
package contains a vignette on developing {gridpattern}
/ {ggpattern}
patterns with a few more examples: https://coolbutuseless.github.io/package/ggpattern/articles/
Also the {gridpattern}
source contains the full source code for 18 patterns: https://github.com/trevorld/gridpattern/tree/main/R