One of the most unique and powerful aspects of R is its ability to create statistical graphics beyond the limited palette found in off-the-shelf graphing tools like Excel. Especially for novices of data presentation, it can be difficult to grasp how much more meaning can be extracted from data when you have the tools to combine science and art creatively to create unique visualizations. (As an aside, I've been pleased to see that this is an idea that has been coming into the mainstream recently: the New York Times, for example, has in recent years has had some truly outstanding displays of data, both static and interactive. There was a fascinating article about the people behind those graphics in the New York magazine last week.)
But back to my original point: one of the best ways to understand the power of R's graphical tools is to see them in action, and the R Graph Gallery from Romain François is a wonderful showcase of what's possible in R. You can look at the top-rated graphs (and rate them yourself), or just browse through all the graphs. (I do wish the UI for browsing graphs was better, through -- I'd prefer a keystroke or even a button rather than having to use the Browse menu each time.)
Best of all, the source code for each graph is available. In the bottom-left corner under Source Code, use the icons next to Download or view. The R icon gives you a script suitable for downloading and using in R, the Firefox icon lets you view the script in your browser. Inspecting the source code for a graph that catches your eye, or even modifying it to your own ends, is a great way to learn the nuances of the R graphics system.
Here are three of my favorites. Click on the image to see the graph in the gallery.
Romain François: R Graph Gallery
The R graph gallery is cool, but someone REALLY needs to go in and recreate all the graphs with anit-aliasing. Back when I was new to R, I took a look at this page and said "R can make good graphs? Maybe the content of the graphs is good, but these look like crap!!"
Posted by: Ryan | January 30, 2009 at 11:06
That's an excellent point. You inspired an entire post with this comment. Those graphics do look much better when anti-aliased.
Posted by: David Smith | January 30, 2009 at 16:41
Thanks Ryan to volunteer some of your time to anti-alias the graphics, much appreciated. ;-)
Romain
Posted by: Romain Francois | February 04, 2009 at 08:57