How to reduce space between axis ticks and axis labels in R

Question

I have the below plot generated in R:

Code:

ecdf.bdel<-ecdf(bDE[,6])  #### cumulative distribution of a vector of numeric values

curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlim=r,xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged") ###plotting inverse ecdf curve

the plot is as expected. However, it leaves huge white space between axis ticks and axis labels and also between axis labels and axis labs.

Could someone offer any tip to reduce the white space.

Solution

Insert mgp parameter like this, and see if it works. Also see mar parameter for margin from all the sides. You can use both together inside par() function to solve your problem.

   par(mgp=c(3,1,0),mar(5,4,4,2)+0.1)
   curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged") 

The first value in mgp is where your axis labels moves either close to or far from axis, less value means closer to axis and high value means far from axis on both the axis i.e. x and y axis.

The second value in mgp is where your tick labels moves either close to or far from ticks, less value means closer to tick and high value means far from ticks on both the axis i.e. x and y axis.

The third value in mgp is where your ticks moves either close to or far from axis line itself, less value means closer to axis line and high value means far from axis line on both the axis, i.e. x and y.

mar is a numerical vector of the form c(bottom, left, top, right) which gives the number of lines of margin to be specified on the four sides of the plot. The default is c(5, 4, 4, 2) + 0.1.

Remove xlim from curve() function. Your graph condition

  par(mgp=c(10,4,0),mar=c(11,11,5,5)+0.1)
  curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged") 

 par(mgp=c(3,1,0),mar=c(5,4,4,2)+0.1)
 curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged") 

Example: Using plot instead of curve. It is similar

First Case:

    par(mgp=c(7,3,0),mar=c(8,8,5,5)+0.1)
    plot(1:10,xlab="X Axis", ylab="Y Axis", main="My Plot")

Second Case

    par(mgp=c(3,1,0),mar=c(5,4,4,2)+0.1)
    plot(1:10,xlab="X Axis", ylab="Y Axis", main="My Plot")

Comments

[chas]

i don't see any difference in the code with mine. however i am having this wierd space issue between the axis and labels.

[Waqas]

I removed the xlim. Just try on the file, it should work. Also maybe possible problem with how you were reading the file. I used V1, by saying F in read.table

[Waqas]

No problem! Happy I was of some use.

[chas]

i was too early to post that it worked. Either solutions give me the plot with the space issue. The problem still holds

[chas]

for some reason i end up having the similar plot, no matter what the mpg and mar values are!!!

[Waqas]

Did you remove the xlim ?

[Waqas]

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

[Sowmya S. Manian]

Could you please share your entire code for this plot? We have the data and please add sessionInfo() so that we know which machine you are using.

[Sowmya S. Manian]

The below three steps should work. >ecdf.bdel<-ecdf(df[,1]) >par(mgp=c(3,1,0),mar=c(5,4,4,2)+0.1) >curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged")

[chas]

it worked. but how can save it as png with 300dpi resolution?

[Sowmya S. Manian]

>png("Plot.png", width = 4, height = 4, units = 'in', res = 300) >ecdf.bdel<-ecdf(df[,1]) >par(mgp=c(3,1,0),mar=c(5,4,4,2)+0.1) >curve(1-ecdf.bdel(x),col="red",xlab="r2",ylab="Fraction of SVs tagged") >dev.off()

[Sowmya S. Manian]

add the first and last command i.e. png() and dev.off() and in between would be your code like shown in above comment. Then check your current working directory, that will have your png file.