Reset the graphical parameters back to default values without use of dev.off()

Such as margins, orientations and such...

dev.off() does not work for me. I am often using RStudio, with its inbuilt graphics device. I then have plotting functions, which I want to plot either in the default RStudio graphics device, or if I called X11(), before in a new window.

This behaviour doesn't work with dev.off(). If my plotting function always calls dev.off(), it might inadvertently close the X11() window and instead plot in the RStudio device. If I always call dev.off() followed by X11(), it would always plot in a new window, even if I wanted to plot in the RStudio device.

Ordinarily that could be solved with getOption("device"), however, that always returns RStudioGD.

See ?par. The idea is that you save them as they are when you found them, and then restore:

old.par <- par(mar = c(0, 0, 0, 0))
## do plotting stuff with new settings

Now restore as they were before we changed mar:

par(old.par)

In RStudio, You can just navigate to 'Plots' and select 'Remove plots'

If you already missed saving the default parameters at startup, and you don't want to restart the session, then you can open a terminal and run R by (usually) typing R.

Then type: >par()

It will print all the default values.

You can save them in a text file and import into the workspace that you are currently working in.

a simple function containing all the defaults can do the job:

  reset_par <- function(){
    op <- structure(list(xlog = FALSE, ylog = FALSE, adj = 0.5, ann = TRUE,
                         ask = FALSE, bg = "transparent", bty = "o", cex = 1, 
                         cex.axis = 1, cex.lab = 1, cex.main = 1.2, cex.sub = 1, 
                         col = "black", col.axis = "black", col.lab = "black", 
                         col.main = "black", col.sub = "black", crt = 0, err = 0L, 
                         family = "", fg = "black", fig = c(0, 1, 0, 1), 
                         fin = c(6.99999895833333, 6.99999895833333), font = 1L, 
                         font.axis = 1L, font.lab = 1L, font.main = 2L, 
                         font.sub = 1L, lab = c(5L, 5L, 7L), las = 0L, 
                         lend = "round", lheight = 1, ljoin = "round", lmitre = 10, 
                         lty = "solid", lwd = 1, mai = c(1.02, 0.82, 0.82, 0.42), 
                         mar = c(5.1, 4.1, 4.1, 2.1), mex = 1, mfcol = c(1L, 1L), 
                         mfg = c(1L, 1L, 1L,1L), mfrow = c(1L, 1L), 
                         mgp = c(3, 1, 0), mkh = 0.001, new = FALSE, 
                         oma = c(0, 0, 0, 0), omd = c(0, 1, 0, 1), 
                         omi = c(0, 0, 0,0), pch = 1L, 
                         pin = c(5.75999895833333, 5.15999895833333),
                         plt = c(0.117142874574832, 0.939999991071427, 
                                 0.145714307397962, 0.882857125425167), 
                         ps = 12L, pty = "m", smo = 1, srt = 0, tck = NA_real_, 
                         tcl = -0.5, usr = c(0.568, 1.432, 0.568, 1.432), 
                         xaxp = c(0.6, 1.4, 4), xaxs = "r", xaxt = "s", 
                         xpd = FALSE, yaxp = c(0.6, 1.4, 4), yaxs = "r", 
                         yaxt = "s", ylbias = 0.2), 
                         .Names = c("xlog", "ylog", "adj", "ann", "ask", "bg", 
                         "bty", "cex", "cex.axis", "cex.lab", "cex.main", "cex.sub", 
                         "col", "col.axis", "col.lab", "col.main", "col.sub", "crt", 
                         "err", "family", "fg", "fig", "fin", "font", "font.axis", 
                         "font.lab", "font.main", "font.sub", "lab", "las", "lend", 
                         "lheight", "ljoin", "lmitre", "lty", "lwd", "mai", "mar", 
                         "mex", "mfcol", "mfg", "mfrow", "mgp", "mkh", "new", "oma",
                         "omd", "omi", "pch", "pin", "plt", "ps", "pty", "smo", 
                         "srt", "tck", "tcl", "usr", "xaxp", "xaxs", "xaxt", "xpd", 
                         "yaxp", "yaxs", "yaxt", "ylbias"))
  par(op)
  }

call it using:

reset_par()

The canonical answer was only in a comment (by Cookie), and might easily be overlooked:

Get the current/default parameters

old.par <- par(no.readonly = TRUE)

Set them in your code, e.g.

par(mai=c(0,0,0,0))

And then you can reset the pars with

par(old.par)

Or, in a function

on.exit(par(old.par))

For margins ?par provides a default value of c(5,4,4,2)+0.1. The following should reset the margins to the default values.

par(mar=c(5,4,4,2)+0.1)