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forestploter

INFRA · APIS
Velocity0.0

Create a Flexible Forest Plot

github.com/adayim/forestploter ↗

A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.

data-visualizationclinical-trialsforest-plotsmeta-analysisr-package
◆Current state
forestploter draws forest plots where the layout is driven by the data frame itself, so text columns and confidence intervals sit in the same grid. The theme function has become the package's centre of gravity: it now controls graphical parameters for titles, legends, axis, arrow labels, footnotes, and reference lines, with multi-column and row-order legend controls added most recently. Two releases shipped nine minutes apart in April 2026 after a two-year gap, deprecating some theme parameters, removing inter-cell gaps, and improving tick breaks.
◆Where it's heading
The direction has been consistent for four years: whatever a user might want to restyle eventually becomes an argument. Point size stopped being transformed, cell height adjustment was removed as unwanted, legends gained size, column, and fill-order control, and vertical lines learned to extend the full plot height and to draw beneath the whiskers. The one structural move was 1.1.0, which let callers supply their own confidence-interval and summary drawing functions — turning a fixed renderer into an extensible one. Everything since has been the arguments that extensibility did not cover.
◆Prediction
The latest release deprecates theme parameters rather than adding them, which suggests the next one consolidates the theme surface that has grown for four years rather than extending it further.

◆Recent moves

  1. 3mo ago

    Theme parameters deprecated; cell gaps removed, ticks improved

    The first release in the window to subtract rather than add, deprecating theme parameters that had accumulated. Removing the gap between cells and improving tick breaks are small visual changes users will see immediately in existing plots.

    View source ↗
  2. 3mo ago

    Multi-column legends and full-height vertical lines

    Legends gain column count and fill-order control, and vertical lines extend to the top and bottom of the plot. Shipped nine minutes before the next release after a two-year gap, so the pair reads as one catch-up rather than two.

    View source ↗
  3. 2y ago

    Full graphical control over titles, legends, axis and footnotes

    The broadest styling release: every graphical parameter of the surrounding furniture becomes settable, minor ticks and diamond grouping arrive, and the reference line is drawn beneath the whiskers where it belongs. This is the release that made the theme function the package's main interface.

    View source ↗
  4. 2y ago

    Tick digit calculation improved; automatic cell height removed

    Small corrections including an automatic cell-height adjustment removed as unwanted and a misspelled parameter fixed. Housekeeping between the larger styling releases.

    View source ↗
  5. 3y ago

    Custom CI and summary drawing functions; boxplots inside the plot

    Two lines of notes carrying the most structural change in the package's history: forest() accepts user-supplied confidence-interval and summary functions, which turns a fixed renderer into one users can extend. make_boxplot() is the first thing built on that opening, drawing distributions where an interval usually goes.

    View source ↗
  6. 3y ago

    Arbitrary grobs and math symbols can be placed in cells

    add_grob() lets arbitrary graphics be dropped into the plot grid and text parsing gains math symbols, both widening what a cell can contain. Point sizes also stop being transformed, one of several defaults reversed once real use exposed them.

    View source ↗