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mapsf

ANALYTICS
Velocity0.0

Thematic cartography with R. Contribute to riatelab/mapsf development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com/riatelab/mapsf ↗

Thematic mapping in base R that finally got a theming system, then spent two years polishing legends.

cartographythematic-mapsspatialbase-graphicsr-package
◆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.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1mo ago

    Label placement arguments and deterministic distribution plots

    mf_label() gains add, extent, and expandBB arguments, and custom legend positions work for the prop_typo type. The quieter fix seeds the vertical jitter in mf_distr() so the same data produces the same plot every time — the difference between a figure you can regenerate and one you have to save.

    View source ↗
  2. 2mo ago

    Background and extent control across the drawing functions

    Adds bg and extent arguments to mf_map(), mf_shadow(), and mf_graticule() plus bg for mf_raster(), so background color and plot extent are set where the map is drawn rather than beforehand. A long list of cleanups accompanies it, removing unused arguments and pushing the leg_val_rnd, leg_val_dec, and leg_val_big vocabulary into the grad type and mf_legend().

    View source ↗
  3. 7mo ago

    PNG resolution control and legend number formatting

    Adds a res argument to mf_png() for nominal resolution and leg_val_dec and leg_val_big for decimal and thousands separators wherever leg_val_rnd already applied. Also improves the heuristic for detecting lon/lat plots in mf_scale(), and ships a new pkgdown site.

    View source ↗
  4. 1y ago

    1.0.0 introduces theming and deprecates eight style arguments

    ⚡ SPARK

    The first major version replaces scattered per-call styling with a theming system, deprecating bg, fg, tab, pos, inner, line, cex, and font, and shipping a new default map style. Map elements redraw on device resize, alpha transparency reaches every map type, and mf_png() and mf_svg() make export a first-class operation.

    View source ↗
  5. 1y ago

    Pencil-sketch layers, ckmeans breaks, and border extraction

    Adds mf_get_pencil() for turning polygons into a hand-drawn-style layer, mf_get_borders() for extracting borders between contiguous polygons, and Q6 and ckmeans classification methods for mf_get_breaks(). Also fixes inset functions on split windows and warns when values fall outside choropleth class limits.

    View source ↗
  6. 2y ago

    Graticule label display fix

    A single fix improving label display management in mf_graticule(). Narrow enough that it is the entire release.

    View source ↗