How to specify font size in a plot (for PDF output)?

Question

Any ideas on how to calibrate cex to font size units?

Specifically, I'd like to work with the default family 'Helvetica' and specify font sizes to correspond to .doc font sizes. For example, use font size 12 for main titles and font size 10 for axis titles.

I'd appreciate your advise and suggestions. thanks!

Answer 1

You can set the default font on a plot by plot basis.

par(family = 'Helvetica')
plot(rnorm(10), main = 'Something In Helvetica')

There is also a par('font') that you can use to set whether the font is bold, italic, etc. For the size, besides the cex group of parameters mentioned by Brandon that allow one to set the font size as a relative term, there is also cin, cra, and I believe more that allow one to set sizes in inches or in pixels. Unfortunately, you can't specify in a standard font size of 10 or 12.

Check the help for par() and read it very carefully.

Answer 2

Your first question requires a bit of heavy lifting. There is a good set of instructions here: http://www.jameskeirstead.ca/typography/changing-the-fonts-in-r-plots/ I'm not aware of an "easier way". But I'd love to see one.

For your second question: See ?par specifically the part about cex.

cex
cex.axis
cex.lab
cex.main

Additionally, you can mess with the pointsize setting in ?pdf to adjust the relative sizes.