How to preview a plot using absolute size #1583

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1. ccsarapas commented on Mar 25, 2025

   

   ccsarapas

   on Mar 25, 2025

   Last edited by ccsarapas

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   I don't think this is supported (either by the VSCode R extension or in RStudio). However, I had the same need so knocked together a pair of functions to display a plot at a specified size in VSCode.

   vsview <- function(plot = ggplot2::last_plot(),
                      width = 6.5,
                      height = 4,
                      panel = 1,  # can init multiple panels, then send different plots to different panels
                      units = c("in", "cm", "mm", "px"),
                      dpi = 300,
                      scale = 1,
                      limitsize = TRUE,
                      bg = "white",
                      device = NULL,
                      mustWork = NA,
                      ...) {
     filename <- normalizePath(
       file.path(tempdir(), paste0("preview", panel, ".png")),
       winslash = "/", mustWork = mustWork
     )
     ggplot2::ggsave(
       filename, plot,
       device = device, scale = scale, width = width,
       height = height, units = units, dpi = dpi, limitsize = limitsize, bg = bg,
       ...
     )
     invisible(filename)
   }
   vsview_init <- function(panel = 1, vscode_path = getOption("editor")) {
     plot <- ggplot2::ggplot()
     bg <- "gray35"
     filename <- vsview(plot = plot, panel = panel, bg = bg, mustWork = FALSE)
     system2(vscode_path, shQuote(filename))
   }

   Use like:

   library(ggplot2)
   
   vsview_init()  # open a "viewer pane" in VSCode
   
   p <- ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) +
     geom_point()
   
   vsview(p, w = 7, h = 4)

   I put this in my user .Rprofile inside if (Sys.getenv("TERM_PROGRAM") == "vscode") { }.
2. ThomasSoeiro commented on Sep 22, 2026

   

   ThomasSoeiro

   on Sep 22, 2026

   Collaborator

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   @grantmcdermott perhaps it can either be closed as not planed or added it to a milestone?
3. REditorSupport

   locked and limited conversation to collaborators on Sep 22, 2026
4. eitsupi

   converted this issue into a discussion #1748 on Sep 22, 2026