grobX: Create a Unit Describing a Grob Boundary Location

Description Usage Arguments Details Value Author(s) See Also


These functions create a unit object describing a location somewhere on the boundary of a grob. They are generic.


grobX(x, theta)
grobY(x, theta)



A grob, or gList, or gTree, or gPath.


An angle indicating where the location is on the grob boundary. Can be one of "east", "north", "west", or "south", which correspond to angles 0, 90, 180, and 270, respectively.


The angle is anti-clockwise with zero corresponding to a line with an origin centred between the extreme points of the shape, and pointing at 3 o'clock.

If the grob describes a single shape, the boundary value should correspond to the exact edge of the shape.

If the grob describes multiple shapes, the boundary value will either correspond to the edge of a bounding box around all of the shapes described by the grob (for multiple rectangles, circles, xsplines, or text), or to a convex hull around all vertices of all shapes described by the grob (for multiple polygons, points, lines, polylines, and segments).

Points grobs are currently a special case because the convex hull is based on the data symbol locations and does not take into account the extent of the data symbols themselves.

The extents of any arrow heads are currently not taken into account.


A unit object.


Paul Murrell

See Also

unit and grobWidth


Please suggest features or report bugs with the GitHub issue tracker.
