Patchwork package - joining three graphs

Question

I want to join three graphs with the patchwork package in R. I have also given an example that I prepared with Excel. I tried this code, but it didn't work.

library(patchwork)
patch_design <- c(area(1, 1, 1, 1),
                  area(1, 1, 1, 2),       
                  area(1, 3, 1, 3)) 
graph1 + graph2 + graph3 + plot_layout(design= patch_design)

I am able to make a graph but i could not able to keep the graph-a to its original size.

Answer 1

Note that with {pathcwork} layouts, you generally deal with relative measures and ratios, not absolute sizes. And grid definition with area() goes like:

area(top, left, bottom, right)

, absolute values starting from top-left corner, values themselves define the layout grid size (i.e. if you only use 1 for all your top and bottom values, you'll end up having a single-row grid)

In many cases, it's more straightforward to describe the layout as a string, i.e. for the one in your image, it might take a form of

11111
22233

or

111111
222233

You can use almost any symbols you like, # is a placeholder for empty grid cell, just be aware of the sorting order or your plots might not end up where you expected.

Let's start with the layout in question:

library(ggplot2)
library(patchwork)

## prepare example plots
ggplaceholder <- function(text, color){
  ggplot() + 
    geom_tile(aes(x = 0, y = 0, width = 1, height = 1), fill = color, alpha = .5) +
    geom_text(aes(x = 0, y = 0, label = text), size = 10) + 
    theme_minimal() +
    theme(panel.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent"))
}

graph1 <- ggplaceholder("graph 1", "red")
graph2 <- ggplaceholder("graph 2", "green")
graph3 <- ggplaceholder("graph 3", "blue")

# current patch design, 
# 1x3 gird (single row x 3 columns), 
# grahp2 covers graph1:
patch_design <- c(area(1, 1, 1, 1), # 1 cell  for g1, from top-left to top-left 
                  area(1, 1, 1, 2), # 2 cells for g2, from top-left to top-middle 
                  area(1, 3, 1, 3)) # 2 cell  for g3, from top-right to top-right 
graph1 + graph2 + graph3 + plot_layout(design = patch_design)

Changing it to 2 row layout:

# 2x5 grid
patch_design <- c(area(1, 1, 1, 5), # 5/5 of first row for g1
                  area(2, 1, 2, 3), # 3/5 of 2nd row for g2
                  area(2, 4, 2, 5)) # 2/5 of 2nd row for g3
graph1 + graph2 + graph3 + plot_layout(design = patch_design)

And the same with string definition:

# instead of area(), you can define a layout grid with a string, 
# might be easier to follow and debug;
# identical to previous 2x5 grid:
patch_design_txt <- c("11111
                       22233")
graph1 + graph2 + graph3 + plot_layout(design = patch_design_txt)

^{Created on 2023-09-03 with reprex v2.0.2}