README.md

In highdir: Unified Data Visualization Framework for Dynamic and Static Graphics

highdir

highdir is an R package that provides a unified, mode-agnostic API for building dynamic or static figures with either highcharter, ggplot2 or other R solutions where relevant.

The package provides two complementary yet fully interoperable APIs for creating figures:

1. Declarative API - define all components of a figure up front and render it in a single step.
2. Layered API - incrementally compose a figure by adding layers, similar to the grammar of graphics.

Both APIs produce equivalent visual output and can target any supported mode without changes to the calling code.

With the declarative API, a figure is specified once as an hd_spec object and can later be rendered to different modes. Mode-specific presentation options (such as interactivity or styling tweaks) can be supplied separately via an hc_opts object prior to rendering.

The layered API supports an exploratory, iterative workflow. Figures are built step by step using + similar to ggplot2 style, making this approach particularly well suited for interactive analysis and rapid prototyping, while remaining mode-independent.

By default, highdir ships with colour palette, theme, and visual identity of The Norwegian Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet). To further enhance usability, a Shiny graphical user interfacef for building and previewing figures is also included as part of the package.

Installation

# Install from CRAN 
install.packages("highdir")

# Install development version from GitHub 
if(!require(remotes)) install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("folkehelsestats/highdir")

Get started

The simplest way to get started with highdir is by using the built-in Shiny app. It shows also codes to demonstrate how to use the package programmatically in R. Start the app with:

library(highdir)
hd_app()

The app is also available directly through ShinyApps.io at: https://bit.ly/highdir

Supported geometries

| Name | dynamic mode | static mode | Extra args | |:---|:---|:---|:---| | column | column | geom_col() | — | | ranked_bar | column | geom_col() | vs, aim, char_scale, min_frac | | line | line / spline | geom_line() | smooth, dot_size, line_symbols | | scatter | scatter | geom_point() | dot_size | | arearange | arearange | geom_ribbon() | ymin, ymax | | pie | pie | geom_bar(), coord_polar() | inner_size | | stacked_column | column | geom_bar(), facet_wrap() | stack, stacking | | venn | venn | eulerr::euler() | |

To see complete list of extra arguments for specify geoms use geom_args() function:

geom_args("ranked_bar")
geom_args("arearange")

License

MIT © Kamaleri

highdir documentation built on July 31, 2026, 5:06 p.m.