Calculate width of text string in default font/size

Question

Is it at all possible to calculate the width size (in inches) of a particular string in the default font ( par()$family ) , and default size ( par()$ps ).

Calculating the height seems relatively simple:

par()$ps * 1/72

The challenge with width is that it is dependent on the string itself. A string of i's "iiiiii" is smaller than a string of o's "ooooooo"

Answer 1

You are looking for the function strwidth in base

strwidth('this is cool', font = 12, units = 'in')