Export R plot to multiple formats

Question

Since it is possible to export R plots to PDF or PNG or SVG etc., is it also possible to export an R plot to multiple formats at once? E.g., export a plot to PDF and PNG and SVG without recalculating the plot?

Answer 1

Without using ggplot2 and other packages, here are two alternative solutions.

1. Create a function generating a plot with specified device and sapply it

   # Create pseudo-data
   x <- 1:10
   y <- x + rnorm(10)
   
   # Create the function plotting with specified device
   plot_in_dev <- function(device) {
     do.call(
       device,
       args = list(paste("plot", device, sep = "."))  # You may change your filename
     )
     plot(x, y)  # Your plotting code here
     dev.off()
   }
   
   wanted_devices <- c("png", "pdf", "svg")
   sapply(wanted_devices, plot_in_dev)
   

2. Use the built-in function dev.copy

   # With the same pseudo-data
   # Plot on the screen first
   plot(x, y)
   
   # Loop over all devices and copy the plot there
   for (device in wanted_devices) {
     dev.copy(
       eval(parse(text = device)),
       paste("plot", device, sep = ".")  # You may change your filename
     )
     dev.off()
   }
   

The second method may be a little tricky because it requires non-standard evaluation. Yet it works as well. Both methods work on other plotting systems including ggplot2 simply by substituting the plot-generating codes for the plot(x, y) above - you probably need to print the ggplot object explicitly though.