Font metrics broken for R 4.2.0

[clauswilke]

There appear to be font metrics issues for R 4.2.0: wilkelab/ggtext#81

[netique]

gridtext/R/text-details.R

Lines 56 to 64 in 8c8fb73

	space_pt <- convertWidth(grobWidth(textGrob(
	label = " ",
	gp = gpar(
	fontsize = fontsize,
	fontfamily = fontfamily,
	fontface = fontface,
	cex = 1
	)
	)), "pt", valueOnly = TRUE)

Returns the same value (5.575518) in both R 4.3.1 and R 4.2.0

However, for ww, 4.1 returns 31.2229 and 4.2 returns 28.99269; for w w, it's 36.79842 and 34.56821, respectively. This makes sense since in R 4.2.0, the text is not bold.

[clauswilke]

Actually, do you only have problems with bold (and maybe italics)? It's possible that what actually is breaking down is the communication of the fontface to R. grid has this weird feature where it stores the font face in two different places, and I remember that it was somewhat difficult to get right and work around. In R 4.1:

library(grid)
gpar(fontface="bold")
#> $fontface
#> [1] "bold"
#> 
#> $font
#> bold 
#>    2

^{Created on 2022-04-20 by the reprex package (v2.0.0)}

If grid has changed which of those two values it actually uses then it is possible that gridtext is sending the wrong value.

[netique]

Yeah, that was the first thing I have looked into, but this schism is new to me. https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2021/12/14/updating-graphics-devices-for-r-4.2.0/index.html does not mention anything new in this territory.

[clauswilke]

The other thing to do is to make a very simple reprex, see if it works, and also inspect the grob that is returned to see if anything looks wrong.

library(gridtext)
library(grid)

text <- "**Bold text**"

g <- richtext_grob(text, .5, .5, hjust = .5, vjust = .5)
grid.newpage()
grid.draw(g)

str(g)
#> List of 6
#>  $ debug        : logi FALSE
#>  $ name         : chr "GRID.richtext_grob.16"
#>  $ gp           : list()
#>   ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gpar"
#>  $ vp           : NULL
#>  $ children     :List of 1
#>   ..$ GRID.gTree.15:List of 9
#>   .. ..$ x            : 'simpleUnit' num 0.5npc
#>   .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. ..$ y            : 'simpleUnit' num 0.5npc
#>   .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. ..$ xext         : num [1:4] -25.8 25.8 -25.8 25.8
#>   .. ..$ yext         : num [1:4] -5.58 -5.58 5.58 5.58
#>   .. ..$ name         : chr "GRID.gTree.15"
#>   .. ..$ gp           : NULL
#>   .. ..$ vp           :List of 33
#>   .. .. ..$ x             : 'simpleUnit' num 0.5npc
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. .. ..$ y             : 'simpleUnit' num 0.5npc
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. .. ..$ width         : 'simpleUnit' num 1npc
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. .. ..$ height        : 'simpleUnit' num 1npc
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 0
#>   .. .. ..$ justification : num [1:2] 0 0
#>   .. .. ..$ gp            : list()
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gpar"
#>   .. .. ..$ clip          : logi FALSE
#>   .. .. ..$ xscale        : num [1:2] 0 1
#>   .. .. ..$ yscale        : num [1:2] 0 1
#>   .. .. ..$ angle         : num 0
#>   .. .. ..$ layout        : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ layout.pos.row: NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ layout.pos.col: NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ valid.just    : num [1:2] 0 0
#>   .. .. ..$ valid.pos.row : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ valid.pos.col : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ name          : chr "GRID.VP.1"
#>   .. .. ..$ parentgpar    : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ gpar          : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ trans         : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ widths        : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ heights       : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ width.cm      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ height.cm     : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ rotation      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ cliprect      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ parent        : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ children      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ devwidth      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ devheight     : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ clippath      : NULL
#>   .. .. ..$ mask          : logi TRUE
#>   .. .. ..$ resolvedmask  : NULL
#>   .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "viewport"
#>   .. ..$ children     :List of 3
#>   .. .. ..$ gridtext.text.1:List of 11
#>   .. .. .. ..$ label        : chr "Bold"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ x            : 'simpleUnit' num -25.8points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ y            : 'simpleUnit' num -3.04points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ just         : chr "centre"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ hjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ rot          : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ check.overlap: logi FALSE
#>   .. .. .. ..$ name         : chr "gridtext.text.1"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ gp           :List of 15
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fill      : chr "white"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ col       : chr "black"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lty       : chr "solid"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lwd       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ cex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontsize  : num 12
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineheight: num 1.2
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontfamily: chr ""
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ alpha     : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineend   : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linejoin  : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linemitre : num 10
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontface  : chr "bold"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ font      : Named int 2
#>   .. .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "names")= chr "bold"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gpar"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vp           : NULL
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr [1:3] "text" "grob" "gDesc"
#>   .. .. ..$ gridtext.text.2:List of 11
#>   .. .. .. ..$ label        : chr "text"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ x            : 'simpleUnit' num 4.34points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ y            : 'simpleUnit' num -3.04points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ just         : chr "centre"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ hjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ rot          : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ check.overlap: logi FALSE
#>   .. .. .. ..$ name         : chr "gridtext.text.2"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ gp           :List of 15
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fill      : chr "white"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ col       : chr "black"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lty       : chr "solid"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lwd       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ cex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontsize  : num 12
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineheight: num 1.2
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontfamily: chr ""
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ alpha     : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineend   : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linejoin  : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linemitre : num 10
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontface  : chr "bold"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ font      : Named int 2
#>   .. .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "names")= chr "bold"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gpar"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vp           : NULL
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr [1:3] "text" "grob" "gDesc"
#>   .. .. ..$ gridtext.text.3:List of 11
#>   .. .. .. ..$ label        : chr ""
#>   .. .. .. ..$ x            : 'simpleUnit' num 25.8points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ y            : 'simpleUnit' num -3.04points
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "unit")= int 8
#>   .. .. .. ..$ just         : chr "centre"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ hjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vjust        : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ rot          : num 0
#>   .. .. .. ..$ check.overlap: logi FALSE
#>   .. .. .. ..$ name         : chr "gridtext.text.3"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ gp           :List of 13
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fill      : chr "white"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ col       : chr "black"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lty       : chr "solid"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lwd       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ cex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontsize  : num 12
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineheight: num 1.2
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ fontfamily: chr ""
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ alpha     : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lineend   : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linejoin  : chr "round"
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ linemitre : num 10
#>   .. .. .. .. ..$ lex       : num 1
#>   .. .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gpar"
#>   .. .. .. ..$ vp           : NULL
#>   .. .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr [1:3] "text" "grob" "gDesc"
#>   .. .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gList"
#>   .. ..$ childrenOrder: chr [1:3] "gridtext.text.1" "gridtext.text.2" "gridtext.text.3"
#>   .. ..- attr(*, "class")= chr [1:3] "gTree" "grob" "gDesc"
#>   ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "gList"
#>  $ childrenOrder: Named chr "GRID.gTree.15"
#>   ..- attr(*, "names")= chr "**Bold text**"
#>  - attr(*, "class")= chr [1:4] "richtext_grob" "gTree" "grob" "gDesc"

^{Created on 2022-04-20 by the reprex package (v2.0.0)}

[netique]

grid::gpar(fontface = "bold") in R 4.2.0 RC returns only

$font
bold 
   2 

EDIT: Documentation states an opposite trend: "font Font face (alias for fontface; for backward compatibility)"

[netique]

The reprex under R 4.2.0 RC, macOS:

library(gridtext)
library(grid)

text <- "**Bold text**"

g <- richtext_grob(text, .5, .5, hjust = .5, vjust = .5)
grid.newpage()
grid.draw(g)

^{Created on 2022-04-21 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value
#>  version  R version 4.2.0 RC (2022-04-19 r82217)
#>  os       macOS Monterey 12.3.1
#>  system   aarch64, darwin20
#>  ui       X11
#>  language (EN)
#>  collate  en_US.UTF-8
#>  ctype    en_US.UTF-8
#>  tz       Europe/Prague
#>  date     2022-04-21
#>  pandoc   2.18 @ /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/quarto/bin/tools/ (via rmarkdown)
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  ! package     * version    date (UTC) lib source
#>    cli           3.2.0      2022-02-14 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    crayon        1.5.1      2022-03-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    curl          4.3.2      2021-06-23 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    digest        0.6.29     2021-12-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    ellipsis      0.3.2      2021-04-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    evaluate      0.15       2022-02-18 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    fansi         1.0.3      2022-03-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    fastmap       1.1.0      2021-01-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    fs            1.5.2      2021-12-08 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    glue          1.6.2      2022-02-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    gridtext    * 0.1.4.9000 2022-04-20 [1] local
#>    highr         0.9        2021-04-16 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    htmltools     0.5.2      2021-08-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    httr          1.4.2      2020-07-20 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    knitr         1.38       2022-03-25 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    lifecycle     1.0.1      2021-09-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    magrittr      2.0.3      2022-03-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  P markdown      1.1        2019-08-07 [?] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    mime          0.12       2021-09-28 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    pillar        1.7.0      2022-02-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    pkgconfig     2.0.3      2019-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    purrr         0.3.4      2020-04-17 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    R.cache       0.15.0     2021-04-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    R.methodsS3   1.8.1      2020-08-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    R.oo          1.24.0     2020-08-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    R.utils       2.11.0     2021-09-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    R6            2.5.1      2021-08-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>  P Rcpp          1.0.8.3    2022-03-17 [?] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    reprex        2.0.1      2021-08-05 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    rlang         1.0.2      2022-03-04 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    rmarkdown     2.13       2022-03-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    rstudioapi    0.13       2020-11-12 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    sessioninfo   1.2.2      2021-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    stringi       1.7.6      2021-11-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    stringr       1.4.0      2019-02-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    styler        1.7.0      2022-03-13 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    tibble        3.1.6      2021-11-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    utf8          1.2.2      2021-07-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    vctrs         0.4.1      2022-04-13 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    withr         2.5.0      2022-03-03 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    xfun          0.30       2022-03-02 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    xml2          1.3.3      2021-11-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#>    yaml          2.3.5      2022-02-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.2.0)
#> 
#>  [1] /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/library
#> 
#>  P ── Loaded and on-disk path mismatch.
#> 
#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[netique]

Key differences seem to be around here (old = 4.1.3, new = 4.2.0):

> waldo::compare(
+   one$children$GRID.gTree.15$children$gridtext.text.1,
+   two$children$GRID.gTree.13$children$gridtext.text.4
+ )
`old$x`: "-25.76736points"
`new$x`: "-23.43599points"

`old$name`: "gridtext.text.1"
`new$name`: "gridtext.text.4"

`old$gp` is length 15
`new$gp` is length 13

`names(old$gp)[11:15]`: "linejoin" "linemitre" "lex" "fontface" "font"
`names(new$gp)[11:13]`: "linejoin" "linemitre" "lex"                  

`old$gp$fontface` is a character vector ('bold')
`new$gp$fontface` is absent

`old$gp$font` is an integer vector (2)
`new$gp$font` is absent

We effectively loose "fontface" and "font" gpars somewhere on the way.

EDIT: When I try to draw richtext_grob made in R 4.1.3, an error pops up: Error in validGP(gp) : must specify only one of 'font' and 'fontface'.

[clauswilke]

Yeah, that's probably going to be the issue. At a minimum, this function will have to be updated:

gridtext/R/drawing-context.R

Lines 72 to 85 in 8c8fb73

	set_context_fontface <- function(drawing_context, fontface = "plain", overwrite = FALSE) {
	fontface_old <- drawing_context$gp$fontface
	# combine bold and italic if needed
	if (!isTRUE(overwrite)) {
	if (isTRUE(fontface == "italic") && isTRUE(fontface_old == "bold")) {
	fontface <- "bold.italic"
	} else if (isTRUE(fontface == "bold") && isTRUE(fontface_old == "italic")) {
	fontface <- "bold.italic"
	}
	}
	set_context_gp(drawing_context, gpar(fontface = fontface))
	}

But I don't immediately see how that can cause the problem, there must be somewhere else where I'm reading fontface instead of font.

[clauswilke]

Ok, I think I know now what the problem is. Because of this dual specification of font and fontface when merging graphics parameters I have always removed font and then stuck the old values back into gpar(). Instead, we now need to remove fontface (if it exists). This happens in this function:

gridtext/R/drawing-context.R

Lines 46 to 52 in 8c8fb73

	update_gpar <- function(gp, gp_new) {
	names_new <- names(gp_new)
	names_old <- names(gp)
	gp[c(intersect(names_old, names_new), "font")] <- NULL
	gp_new["font"] <- NULL
	do.call(gpar, c(gp, gp_new))
	}

Here is an example of how it has to be fixed and how it works afterwards (and it should work both in R 4.2 and in older versions of R):

library(grid)
update_gpar <- function(gp, gp_new) {
  names_new <- names(gp_new)
  names_old <- names(gp)
  gp[c(intersect(names_old, names_new), "fontface")] <- NULL
  gp_new["fontface"] <- NULL
  do.call(gpar, c(gp, gp_new))
}

gp <- gpar(fontface = "bold")
update_gpar(gp, gpar(color = "blue"))
#> $font
#> [1] 2
#> 
#> $color
#> [1] "blue"

^{Created on 2022-04-20 by the reprex package (v2.0.0)}

[netique]

Thanks! This works great, now there is font in gpar and no fontface. The text is actually bold/italic etc. BUT – space width visually stays the same for both plain and bold under R 4.2.0. However, with font and text caching both turned off, the actual grob widths are now exactly the same in both R versions. Without the font gpar removal, those differ in 4.1.3:

"grob_width_of"	"old_plain"	"new_plain"	"old_bold"	"old_bold_without_font_removed"	"new_bold"
"text"	0	0	0	0	0
"font"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"text"	24.113525390625	24.113525390625	0	0	0
"font"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"text"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	24.113525390625	26.762484375	24.113525390625
"font"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"text"	19.41315234375	19.41315234375	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"font"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"text"	0	0	19.41315234375	21.42692578125	19.41315234375
"font"	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501
"text"	NA	NA	0	0	0
"font"	NA	NA	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501	3.34531054687501

Nicely visible with debugmode on (R 4.1.3 with and without fontface gpar removal fix):

[clauswilke]

That makes sense, actually, because the text_details() function assumes there's a field fontfamily in the graphical parameters:

gridtext/R/text-details.R

Line 16 in 8c8fb73

fontfamily <- gp$fontfamily %||% grid::get.gpar("fontfamily")$fontfamily

This will also have to be changed to font. This change has to be applied throughout all the code in text-details.R.

[netique]

I think you meant fontface, not fontfamily. Anyway, with fontface eliminated in favour of font, IT WORKS! I'll prepare PR. Many thanks!

[clauswilke]

Thank you for all your effort on this! I'm glad we could figure this out so quickly. I'll carefully review your PR soon, by the weekend the latest.