qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
ggsci vs quantities
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggsci and quantities — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ggsci vs quantities: at a glance
What is ggsci?
ggsci quietly became a palette mirror, then taught itself to generate colors on demand
ggsci ships ready-made ggplot2 color scales, originally journal and sci-fi palettes and now overwhelmingly terminal themes — the iTerm collection has grown past 400 entries and picks up 30 to 70 more with each sync. The one structural change in the recent run is gephi_palettes(), which generates distinct categorical colors for an arbitrary number of levels rather than serving a fixed list. Release cadence is steady, roughly every six to eight weeks.
What is quantities?
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.
ggsci vs quantities: editorial side-by-side
ggsci
2.5ANALYTICS
ggsci quietly became a palette mirror, then taught itself to generate colors on demand
◆ Current state
ggsci ships ready-made ggplot2 color scales, originally journal and sci-fi palettes and now overwhelmingly terminal themes — the iTerm collection has grown past 400 entries and picks up 30 to 70 more with each sync. The one structural change in the recent run is gephi_palettes(), which generates distinct categorical colors for an arbitrary number of levels rather than serving a fixed list. Release cadence is steady, roughly every six to eight weeks.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel. The larger one is curation: ggsci has effectively become a distribution channel for upstream color work, adding design-system palettes (Primer, Atlassian, Bootstrap, Tailwind) and re-syncing iTerm as that project changes, including correcting existing color values when upstream moves. The smaller and more interesting one is generation — the Gephi engine sidesteps the ceiling every fixed palette has, which is what happens when a plot needs more categories than any curated set provides.
◆ Prediction
Given how much of the release notes each cycle is a mechanical upstream sync, the plausible next step is automating those syncs rather than adding another vendor palette by hand; the Gephi generator is the more likely place any genuinely new capability appears.
quantities
0.0ANALYTICS
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
◆ Current state
quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.
◆ Where it's heading
The design settled with 0.2.0, which made uncertainty unit-aware and added correlation and covariance support for quantities objects. Since then the package behaves like the integration layer it is — releasing when units, errors, dplyr or ggplot2 shift underneath it rather than on its own schedule. Several releases consist only of test repairs against upstream changes.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to follow a units or errors change rather than introduce new behaviour of its own.
Alternatives to ggsci and quantities
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either ggsci or quantities.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
austraits
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
See all ggsci alternatives → · See all quantities alternatives →
Recent activity from ggsci and quantities
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 16d agoggsciggsci 5.2.0
- 1mo agoggsciggsci 5.1.0
- 4mo agoggsciggsci 5.0.0 generates categorical colors instead of serving a fixed list ⚡
- 4mo agoggsciggsci 4.3.0
- 8mo agoggsciggsci 4.2.0
- 9mo agoggsciggsci 4.1.0
- 1y agoquantitiesFixes covariance and correlation implementations
- 2y agoquantitiesFaster data.frame methods
- 3y agoquantitiesTest fixes for an upstream units change
- 3y agoquantitiesUncertainty becomes unit-aware; adds correlation support
- 5y agoquantitiesCompatibility fix for units 0.7-0
- 6y agoquantitiesFixes uncertainty propagation for offset unit conversions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ggsci and quantities?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggsci is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is ggsci better than quantities?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggsci is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to ggsci?
Top ggsci alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggsci alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggsci for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to quantities?
Top quantities alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "quantities alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/quantities for the full list with editorial commentary on each.