Exporting PNG files from Plotly in R

Question

How can I export a Plotly chart as a image from R using code? (Not using the export button on the chart).

For example, this code from the Plotly site, create this chart:

library(plotly)
set.seed(100)
d <- diamonds[sample(nrow(diamonds), 1000), ]
plot_ly(d, x = carat, y = price, text = paste("Clarity: ", clarity),
        mode = "markers", color = carat, size = carat)

How can I save it as a image?

The official site has this material in python, but I didn't find something similar in R.

Answer 1

There is a export function which allows you to save images without the need to connect to plotly servers. You can find it in the plotly package doc:

p <- plot_ly(...)
export(p, file = "image.png")

You can even change the file type of output by selecting the extension as .png, jpeg or .pdf.

You can also save the image in html file which allows you the plotly experience like zooming or showing annotations by using htmlwidgets::saveWidget:

p <- plot_ly(...)
htmlwidgets::saveWidget(p, file = "image.html")

Answer 2

In the Plotly docs in CRAN I discovered the function plotly_IMAGE.

Here is a example:

set.seed(100)
d <- diamonds[sample(nrow(diamonds), 1000), ]
p <- plot_ly(d, x = carat, y = price, text = paste("Clarity: ", clarity),
        mode = "markers", color = carat, size = carat)

plotly_IMAGE(p, width = 500, height = 500, format = "png", scale = 2,
             out_file = "~/desktop/test.png")

UPDATE

plotly_IMAGE works using Plotly server. A local solution is welcome.