Insert Graphs, Images and Text in SVG Files

Edit SVG files created in 'Inkscape' by replacing placeholders (e.g. a rectangle element or {} in a text box) by 'ggplot2' objects, images or text. This helps automate the creation of figures with complex layouts.

svgedit

svgedit allows creating figures with complex layout programmatically in R, by using an SVG file as a template.

Installation

You can install svgedit from CRAN with:

install.packages("svgedit")

Workflow

There are four main steps to use svgedit:

1. Create an SVG template file using the Inkscape graphics editor
2. Create your figure layout in the SVG file, including:
   • Rectangles for ggplot2 plots and images (they will be replaced by your plots and images)
   • Text elements containing the {} placeholder for dynamic text (a single text box can contain multiple {} placeholders)
   • Any "static" elements you like (text, images, shapes...)
3. Open Inkscape's "Layers and Objects" (Ctrl + Shift + L), and click on your placeholder elements to set their labels
4. In R, use svgedit to replace the placeholders with your plots, images, and text

Example

See the package vignette by running vignette("multi-panel-figure", package = "svgedit") for an example use.