NEWS

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cowplot 1.2.0 (2025-07-07)

• fix get_legend() for redesigned ggplot legend system (#202)

• fix test for ggplot object class (#210)

• fix label order when laying out plots by column rather than by row (@Doubt-0KB, #203)

cowplot 1.1.3 (2024-01-22)

• fix issues with upcoming ggplot 3.5.0.

cowplot 1.1.2 (2023-12-15)

• fix warning message: deprecated size argument in element_rect() and element_line() (@Yunuuuu, #190)

cowplot 1.1.1 (2020-12-30)

• Make sure tests don't fail if vdiffr is missing.

cowplot 1.1.0 (2020-09-08)

• plot_grid() now accepts byrow as an argument to place plots by row or by column onto the plot area (@BrianLang, #162).
• A new null device was added, agg_null_device().
• draw_image(), draw_plot(), and draw_grob() have gained additional alignment parameters halign and valign which allow internal alignment relative to the box into which content is drawn.
• In the functions insert_xaxis_grob() and insert_yaxis_grob(), clipping is now configurable.
• Plot assemblies generated by the patchwork package are now supported in as_grob(), ggdraw(), and plot_grid().

cowplot 1.0.0 (2019-07-11)

Breaking changes

In many ways, cowplot now behaves more appropriately and plays nicer with the R environment and other R packages. However, this means that several breaking changes were introduced:

• The default ggplot2 theme is no longer changed upon loading. You can add theme_set(theme_cowplot()) to your code to restore the old behavior.
• The package ggplot2 needs to be loaded separately from cowplot, it is not automatically attached.
• All themes now use parameters font_size and font_family. Previously, theme_nothing() and theme_map() used base_size and base_family.
• The function cowplot::ggsave() was renamed to cowplot::ggsave2(), so that the ggplot2 version of ggsave() is no longer masked by the cowplot version.

Other breaking changes:

• The defaults for save_plot() were changed somewhat. This may require adjustment if you have code depending on it.

New features

• New functions rectangle_key_glyph() and circle_key_glyph() make it possible to generate customized legend glyphs.
• Improved alignment of plots. Plots can now be aligned in a greedy manner, which improves the appearance of aligned plots with axis labels of very different sizes.
• The new functions stamp(), stamp_good(), stamp_bad(), stamp_ugly(), stamp_wrong() allow labeling of plots as good, bad, ugly, wrong, etc.
• Added a function as_grob() that can convert base plots, lattice plots, and ggplot2 plots into grobs that can then be drawn using standard grid approaches.
• Much improved handling of base R plots, thanks to improvements in grid and gridGraphics. Requires R >= 3.6.0 and gridGraphics >= 0.4.
• Added a function set_null_device() to customize the null graphics device that is used in ggdraw(), plot_grid(), etc. There is no one null device that always works, so customization is needed.
• Added several new themes, including theme_minimal_grid(), theme_minimal_hgrid(), and theme_minimal_vgrid(). Also, theme_cowplot() is now also available as theme_half_open().
• Expanded functions for extracting plot components from ggplots via get_plot_component() and several wrapper functions for getting titles, axes, panels, and so on. This also lets get_panel() extract from plots with more than one panel. get_panel_component() allows you to further extract components like geoms from the plot panel (@malcolmbarrett, #111).

Minor changes

• Minor tweaks to various legend layout parameters so that legends look better as the underlying theme font size is changed.
• Various minor fixes to theme_cowplot() and derived themes.
• Change background_grid() defaults so they match the new grid themes.
• Renamed plot_to_gtable() to as_gtable().
• All functions now understand both spellings of color/colour.
• get_legend() now returns NULL if there is no legend, instead of raising an error.

cowplot 0.9.4 (2019-01-08)

• Fix CRAN check errors

cowplot 0.9.3 (2018-07-15)

• Fix regression tests to work with ggplot2 3.0.0

cowplot 0.9.2 (2017-12-17)

• Rewritten cowplot::ggsave function that calls ggplot2::ggsave
• More robust handling of R graphics device weirdness/plots popping up in the wrong places

cowplot 0.9.1 (2017-11-16)

• Make examples and vignettes fail gracefully when magick package is not installed

cowplot 0.9.0 (2017-11-16)

• Added a theme for maps, theme_map(). Code provided by Spencer Fox, https://github.com/sjfox.
• Added axis_canvas() function and related functions to make marginal plots and plot annotations simpler
• Now export the plot_to_gtable function which converts most anything into a gtable for further use with cowplot
• Added inherit.aes = FALSE to draw functions where needed
• Added examples to various draw functions
• Added draw_image() function to draw images onto plots

cowplot 0.8.0 (2017-07-30)

• The function plot_grid can now also handle base-R (graphics) plots. Code provided by https://github.com/flying-sheep.
• More sophisticated plot alignments of complex plots are now possible. Code provided by Spencer Fox, https://github.com/sjfox.
• Plot labels can now be styled. In particular, they follow the theme settings, e.g. if the theme uses a different font than default. This closes issue #37.
• The positioning of plot labels in plot_grid can now be controlled with additional position parameters label_x and label_y. This closes issue #32.
• Problems with elements from globally set themes leaking into the plot-grid background have been fixed. This closes issues #60, #63, #66.

cowplot 0.7.0 (2016-10-28)

• This version of cowplot has been prepared for the upcoming release of ggplot2 2.2.0. As a result of this upcoming switch, the function switch_axis_position() has been removed. Alternative axes will be natively supported by ggplot2 2.2.0.
• As of this version, cowplot requires R >= 3.3.0. This dependency was added because R 3.3 fixes a critical problem with lists of units.

cowplot 0.6.3 (2016-09-30)

• Adds a get_legend() function that extracts the legend from a plot. Code provided by https://github.com/marcus1487
• Fixes bug that creates an empty page on some plot devices. Fix provided by https://github.com/marcus1487
• Fixes bug that hardcoded panel border line-type and size. Fix provided by Spencer Fox, https://github.com/sjfox
• Adds the option of custom axes on the drawing layer. Code provided by https://github.com/zaczap
• Separates out the alignment function from plot_grid(). Will likely be more useful further down the line. Code provided by Spencer Fox, https://github.com/sjfox

cowplot 0.6.2 (2016-04-20)

• Updated plot_grid vignette so the tutorial on aligning plots of different types works again. This stopped working at some point and was removed from 0.6.1.

cowplot 0.6.1 (2016-03-06)

• Added new convenience function draw_figure_label() to label figures with labels such as "Figure 1".
• Fixes in switch_axis_position() so that rotated axis labels work.
• Fix missing axis lines in ggplot2 2.1

cowplot 0.6.0 (2015-12-19)

Major changes:

• Now requires ggplot2 version 2.0.0 or higher. Use cowplot 0.5.0 with older versions of ggplot2.
• Because of the dependency on ggplot2 2.0.0, the default design is changed. No more bold face for axis labels
• Add auto-generation of labels in plot_grid()
• Add vignettes describing plot annotations and shared legends among plots

cowplot 0.5.0 (2015-07-01)

Major changes:

• Fix label positioning in plot_grid() so it is not affected by the scale parameter
• Add draw_label() function which can draw both text and plotmath expressions
• Add parameters hjust and vjust to plot_grid() to allow fine-tuning of label position
• Add annotations underneath plot, via add_sub() function

Other changes:

• Improve vignettes

cowplot 0.4.0 (2015-06-14)

Major changes:

• Added a function switch_axis_position() which can move/copy the x and/or y axis of a plot to the other side
• plot_grid() can now align graphs
• plot_grid() can now make grids with varying column widths and row heights

Other changes:

• Various improvements in the documentation
• Code has been separated into multiple files for easier maintenance

cowplot 0.3.1 (2015-06-04)

Fix Vignette title

cowplot 0.3.0 (2015-06-03)

First complete implementation ready for initial release