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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Lots more besides: plot recording and replay, axis padding control, faster plots, and many bug fixes. Full changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEWS.html Thanks to everyone who contributed, made suggestions, or filed bug reports.

grantmcdermott.com

news – tinyplot

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Lines can now be coloured by a continuous variable; nice for plotting time-dependent trajectories. Separately, a new `tinyplot.array()` method plots multidimensional arrays directly. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man/tinyplot.array.html

Lorenz attractor with the line coloured by time. Code: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/line-lorenz.R

Hip vs knee angle through the gait cycle for nine boys, coloured by time, from a 3D array.
Code:
gait9 = gait[, 1:9, ]
plt(gait9, draw = plt(gait9, col = "lightgray", facet = FALSE, add = TRUE))

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Order categories on the fly (e.g., by ascending or descending sort), no prior factor leveling required. Unrelated, but nice to demo with these examples... we finally have support for a long-standing FR: rotate tick labels by _any_ angle. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man/type_barplot.htm

Bar chart of mean chick weight by feed, sorted in descending order with rotated labels. Code: plt(weight ~ feed, data = chickwts, type = type_barplot(xord = "desc", fun = mean), xaxr = 45)

The same bar chart sorted in ascending order. Code: plt(weight ~ feed, data = chickwts, type = type_barplot(xord = "asc", fun = mean), xaxr = 45)

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Finer control over facets: custom titles via `prefix`, `labeller` & `sep`, outer-only axes, and dropping empty facets or unused categories. Plus new tools for axis labels, including dictionary-based relabeling, e.g. `xaxl = c(wt = "Weight")`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man/tinyplot.htm

$Faceted scatter plot of mpg vs weight, with custom facet titles and outer-only axes. Code: plt(mpg ~ wt | factor(cyl), facet = ~ am + vs, data = mt, facet.args = list(prefix = c(vs = "V-shaped", am = "Trans."), sep = "\n", axes = "outer")$ $Coefficient plot with tick labels relabelled via a named dictionary. Code: plt(est ~ term, ymin = lwr, ymax = upr, data = coefs, type = "pointrange", xaxl = c(wt = "Weight\n(1,000 lbs)", hp = "Horsepower", ...))$

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

New plot types: tiles & heatmaps, sina plots, hexbins (see above), and stacked areas. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vignettes/types.html

Correlation matrix of the attitude dataset drawn as labelled tiles. Code: plt(Var1 ~ Var2 | Correlation, data = catt, type = "tile", col = "white", ylim = "rev"); plt_add(type = "text", labels = round(catt$Correlation, 2))

Sina points layered on violins, showing penguin bill lengths by species. Code: plt(bill_len ~ species | species, data = penguins, type = "violin", alpha = 0.5, theme = "clean"); plt_add(type = "sina", alpha = 0.3

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 v0.8.0 now available on CRAN 🎉 grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/ This is another big release: new plot types, finer facet & axis control, smarter handling of categorical data, and lots more. Same tiny footprint, though. Short highlight thread below 🧵 #rstats

Heatmap of the mtcars dataset, scaled within each column. Code: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/heatmap-mtcars.R

Histogram of New York temperatures, with bars coloured by their own x values. Code: plt(~ Temp | Temp, data = airquality, type = "hist", theme = "classic")

Hexbin plot of 20,000 bivariate normal draws. Code: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/hexbin.R

Stacked area plot of telephones in use by world region, 1956-1961. Code: plt(WorldPhones[-1, ], type = type_area(stack = TRUE, byord = "end"))

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Reposted by Grant McDermott

Rob Ready @robready.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Remember when the Tesla valuation case was that their cameras were out collecting real-world data? Every top academic in the world is currently furiously typing their most cutting-edge thoughts into AI chat windows.

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Reposted by Grant McDermott

Matt Hodges @matthodges.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I mean? Incredible. (Opus 5.5) PROMPT: Here's a challenge: can you turn this post into a beautiful manim animation video (bonus points for narration). The post is not a perfect video transcript so make a transcript with edits if helpful. matthodges.com/posts/2022-0... use uv with a venv

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

We're obvs all exhausted from endless hype cycles + own benchmarks. But jev still feels like a bigger deal than a lot of people in my orbit are giving credence to.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

With that done, time to read my youngest a delightful allegory about the Springbok scrum and maul.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Leroy Carter with four try assists. (Two in attack, two in defence.)

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

What a half. I'm exhausted and I'm not even at altitude.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Obviously, Will Jordan is very, very good. But there's something Johnny Sexton like about the way defenders keep falling for the same trick. (Surely, he can't get away with it again? Makes 50m. Rinse and repeat.)

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Flyovers out of fashion this week?

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Haha. A fair meme to call it a stalemate.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Look, I understand the technical differences. But, aesthetics aside, I think the few meaningful <- vs = exceptions are actually coding shotguns that, newcomers especially, are better off fencing {} as explicitly scoped.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

As a paid-up member of team "=", I'm contractually obliged to share the (literal) Ross Ihaka rejoinder: "A lot of silly people think assignment is indicated by `<-`. You're wrong!" (35 min) www.youtube.com/live/88Tftll...

youtube.com

Ihaka Lecture Series 2017: Statistical computing in a (more) static environment

YouTube video by University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

At this point, a foundational package. (And those speed-ups!) Congrats mate.

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Reposted by Grant McDermott

Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Big news! 🎉 𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 1.0.0 for #Rstats is out. It’s a big number and it feels like a big step. I wrote a blog on the challenges of interpreting statistical models, SPEED, cool new features, the future, and a 5 year package development and writing odyssey. arelbundock.com/posts/margin...

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Would appreciate some #rstats feedback on a potential `tinyplot` change: github.com/grantmcdermo... Should we default to suppressing the (redundant) inner axes for faceted plots? We already do this for themes without a plot frame (box). But I'm thinking of enabling for framed plots too. #dataviz

Faceted tinyplot where the same axes are displayed for all sub plots.

Same plot as before, except the redundant inner axes are now suppressed.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

This is harder to do than you might think. Do you mind raising an issue on our GitHub repo so we can track, though?

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Get on the phone. There are only two men for the job.

NBC rugby pundits, Alex Corbisiero and Dan Kyle, inexplicitly in the same room rather than Skyping from their kitchens.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

There's always the next edition ;-) (Congrats on making it to the final stage, though!)

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

5. There are a bunch of other improvements... from "smart" axis limits to caption support to numerous bug fixes... See our full v0.7.0. changelog for details: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW... Thanks to everyone who contributed, made suggestions, or filed bug requests. Happy tinyplotting!

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/polygon-valentine.R

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

4. We've added `tinyplot.*` methods for core R objects (data.frame, matrix, ts), making it trivial to visualize your data quickly, e.g. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man... Bonus: this all means you can use tinyplot with pipes, e.g. `mydata |> plt(y ~ x | group)`. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man...

tinyplot(iris, by = "Species", frames = TRUE)

tinyplot(EuStockMarkets,
facet.args = NULL,
type = "area", xlab = NA, yaxl = ",",
main = "European stock indices")

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

3. Support for direct legends and (automatic) text repelling, e.g. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/man...

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/direct-labels-aq.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/line-ipcc.R

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

2. We've added more plot types and improved the functionality of existing types. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/likert.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/ellipse-penguins.R

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

1. We've significantly refactored (and added to) our theming capabilities. Choose from 20+ built-in themes... or roll your own. grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/add-text-mtcars.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/pirate-iris.R

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 v0.7.0 now available on CRAN 🎉 This is big release, with loads of new features. Same tiny footprint, though ;-) Short highlight thread below, borrowing examples from our gallery: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vig...

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/bubble-quakes.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/simpsons-paradox.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/barplot-meat.R

https://github.com/grantmcdermott/tinyplot/blob/main/vignettes/gallery_figs/spineplot-titanic.R

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

`jgd` v0.1.1 is freshly baked & available on CRAN. Mostly doc updates, but includes an important Easter egg: VS Code integration is now baked directly into the main R extension (dev version). It should work out of the box if you grab the latest GitHub release: github.com/grantmcdermo... #rstats

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Live prediction model updating to odds of 1.5 goals in the 94th minute of (at the time) 0-0 game?

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Eff. It really is the hope that gets you.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Objective anthem rankings: 1. Wales 2. France 3. USSR <big gap> 4. Scotland 5. World in Union 6. Waka Waka ...

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Fascinating chart. Not that it undermines your response to that inane meme/agitprop, but I didn't realize the recent uptick was quite that sharp. Do you know whether this dataset conditions on _first_ marriage? If not, composition effects (↑ 2+ marriages) likely act as a major confounder, right?

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

🎉 Potentially out of scope, but any plans to support package (documentation) websites, maybe as a backend to existing options?

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Reposted by Grant McDermott

Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

🎉 Announcing Calepin 🎉 A new tool to create computational notebooks and static websites, built on Typst. Write code and prose directly in your .typ files, then publish them as documents or as a full website. vincentarelbundock.github.io/calepin/ 1/6 🧵 #Rstats #Pydata #Typst

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Canan Moodie is SA's Sam Prendergast, albeit for very different reasons. Unstoppable when on song, but if not... Side note: Ruan Nortjie is SA's Tadhg Beirne, but for very similar reasons (including the fact that they both look absolutely buggered half the time).

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Are GitHub Actions / CI jobs hanging for anyone else? (Specifically on Ubuntu.)

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Gregor Mendel! Franz Kafka! Václav Havel! Martina Navratilova! Can you hear me, Martina?! Your boys took a hell of a beating*! YOUR BOYS TOOK A HELL OF A BEATING. * drawing

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I have a memory of fighting my way through the crowds after, trying to make my train back to Schipol. Sweating, full baggage in tow, but caught up in euphoria (& multiple pints deep). Prob the most concentrated per capita good vibes that I've experienced (alongside St Antonio Festival in Lisbon).

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

One of my best tourist experiences was a long layover in Amsterdam. I'd been back home to catch the 2010 WC (an epic time in of itself). But my return flight coincided with a NL v Brazil QF, so I risked heading into the city for a few hours. NL won 2-1 and the city was, literally, painted orange.

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Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

We're all agreed that the two PREM semifinals were the sporting highlight of the weekend, right? 🏉 <Puts ear to the ground. Ominous rumbling in the distance.>

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Reposted by Grant McDermott

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 02/06/2026

In a new post, I pull data from four different sources --- arXiv, NBER working papers, SSRN, and the AEA --- to look at how much working paper growth and submissions have changed with the growth of AI. paulgp.substack.com/p/the-number...

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