flextable 0.5.4 is now on CRAN. It contains a new output option that some users were asking: image output. You can now save a flextable as a png or pdf file with function save_as_image.

The solution was existing since a long time but was buried in a stackoverflow question instead of being provided in flextable as an option.

This functionality is letting other options to be available, you can now use method plot and also as_raster and do whatever you’d like with the raster (combine with a ggplot object for example).

Demo

First, let’s create a simple flextable.

library(flextable)
ft <- flextable(head(mtcars))
ft <- autofit(ft)
ft

You can save it as a png:

save_as_image(ft, path = "name.png")

You can plot it:

plot(ft)

Or combine the table with a ggplot object:

library(ggplot2)
library(grid)
library(cowplot)

ft_raster <- as_raster(ft)

anyplot <- qplot(speed, dist, data = cars, geom = "point")

gflextable <- ggplot() +
  theme_void() +
  annotation_custom(rasterGrob(ft_raster),
    xmin = -Inf, xmax = Inf, ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf
  )

plot_grid(anyplot, gflextable, nrow = 2, ncol = 1, rel_heights = c(4, 1))

About width and height

When a flextable is printed, it may be useful to know the exact width and height of the table to be sure to set up the correct aspect ratio. The function flextable_dim() will provide these informations without the need to produce the image.

dims <- flextable_dim(ft)
dims
#> $widths
#> [1] 6.186252
#> 
#> $heights
#> [1] 2.800021
#> 
#> $aspect_ratio
#> [1] 0.4526199

You can reuse them as values for knitr chunk options fig.asp, fig.width and fig.height.

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