tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
mapsf vs r2rtf
A side-by-side editorial comparison of mapsf and r2rtf — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
mapsf vs r2rtf: at a glance
What is mapsf?
Thematic mapping in base R that finally got a theming system, then spent two years polishing legends.
mapsf produces thematic maps on R's base graphics device — choropleths, proportional symbols, typology maps, rasters, and their combinations, with legends, scale bars, north arrows, and insets as composable elements. Version 1.0.0 was the structural release, introducing a theming system that deprecated eight scattered styling arguments and adding mf_png() and mf_svg() export helpers plus alpha transparency across map types. The 1.1.x and 1.2.x line since then has been steady refinement: background and extent control on the drawing functions, decimal and thousands-separator control in legends, and label placement arguments.
What is r2rtf?
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
mapsf vs r2rtf: editorial side-by-side
mapsf
0.0ANALYTICS
Thematic mapping in base R that finally got a theming system, then spent two years polishing legends.
◆ Current state
mapsf produces thematic maps on R's base graphics device — choropleths, proportional symbols, typology maps, rasters, and their combinations, with legends, scale bars, north arrows, and insets as composable elements. Version 1.0.0 was the structural release, introducing a theming system that deprecated eight scattered styling arguments and adding mf_png() and mf_svg() export helpers plus alpha transparency across map types. The 1.1.x and 1.2.x line since then has been steady refinement: background and extent control on the drawing functions, decimal and thousands-separator control in legends, and label placement arguments.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has been consolidating control into fewer, more consistent places. Legend handling moved out to the maplegend package in 0.8.0 and the per-element mf_legend_* functions were deprecated in favor of arguments on the map calls themselves; theming replaced ad-hoc style arguments in 1.0.0; and recent releases keep propagating the same argument vocabulary — bg, extent, leg_val_rnd, leg_val_dec, leg_val_big — across every function that should accept it. Determinism is a visible concern too, with 1.2.1 fixing a seed so mf_distr() point positions stop moving between runs.
◆ Prediction
The recent releases are almost entirely argument-parity work across existing functions, so expect that to continue until the vocabulary is uniform rather than any new map type appearing.
r2rtf
0.0ANALYTICS
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
◆ Current state
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the window. One is output reach: RTF remains the composition target, but the artifacts that come out of it now include DOCX and HTML, and page numbering can be made table-relative across multi-page tables. The other is durability under a moving R and font stack — the ANSI/Unicode converter was rebuilt, the LaTeX mapping table generated from code rather than shipped as sysdata, unlist() usage fixed for R 4.5, and graphics-device leaks that produced stray Rplots.pdf closed off.
◆ Prediction
Having exported DOCX and HTML conversion, the likely next step is filling in what those formats lose relative to RTF — pagination and footnote fidelity are the obvious gaps. The i18n path currently covers Chinese only, so additional font families are the other plausible direction.
Alternatives to mapsf and r2rtf
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 mapsf or r2rtf.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
Recent activity from mapsf and r2rtf
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agomapsfLabel placement arguments and deterministic distribution plots
- 2mo agomapsfBackground and extent control across the drawing functions
- 7mo agomapsfPNG resolution control and legend number formatting
- 7mo agor2rtfDOCX and HTML output become exported functions
- 11mo agor2rtfChinese character support arrives via an i18n font path ⚡
- 1y agomapsf1.0.0 introduces theming and deprecates eight style arguments ⚡
- 1y agor2rtfText colour fixed for figures encoded into RTF
- 1y agor2rtfFootnote handling fixed for R 4.5.0
- 1y agor2rtfUnicode converter rebuilt and mapping table made inspectable
- 1y agomapsfPencil-sketch layers, ckmeans breaks, and border extraction
- 2y agomapsfGraticule label display fix
- 2y agor2rtfUTF-8 conversion fix and LibreOffice 7.6 support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mapsf and r2rtf?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. mapsf and r2rtf are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is mapsf better than r2rtf?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mapsf and r2rtf are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to mapsf?
Top mapsf alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mapsf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mapsf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to r2rtf?
Top r2rtf alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "r2rtf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/r2rtf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.