. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)
. separate price, by(rep) shortlabel
(output omitted )
. set scheme s2color
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme s1mono
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 4
Bischof (2017a)
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price) ///
> scheme(538)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price) ///
> scheme(538bw)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 8
Bischof (2017b)
. set scheme plotplain
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme plotplainblind
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 9
Bischof (2017b)
. set scheme plottig
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme plottigblind
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
(note: clockdir zyx2legend_position not found in scheme, default attributes used)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 10
Briatte (2013)
. set scheme burd
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme burd5
. graph hbar price?, stack percent over(foreign)
0 20 40 60 80 100
percent
Foreign
Domestic
mean of price1 mean of price2
mean of price3 mean of price4
mean of price5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 11
Juul (2003)
. set scheme lean1
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme lean2
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 12
Morris (2013, 2015)
. set scheme mrc
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme tfl
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
(note: anglestyle symbol not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note: anglestyle symbol not found in scheme, default attributes used)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 13
Newson (2005)
. set scheme rbn1mono
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. set scheme rbn3mono
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 14
Personal schemes
These additional schemes might provide useful, but most likely none
of them will do exactly what you want.
Therefore, some users also create their personal scheme (for
example, by modifying one of the schemes above and storing it
under a new name in an appropriate place in the local system).
A problem, however, is that what you want depends on context
(properties of the data, type of analysis, nature of results, context in
which graphs are used, audience to which the graphs are presented,
. . . ).
This means that you have to create a new scheme file each time you
want to change some detail. This is very tedious and it is difficult to
keep an overview.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 15
Dynamic schemes
My argument is that graph settings should be dynamic in the sense
that they are defined in the do-file that creates the graphs.
That is, graph settings should not be part of the local system, they
should be part of the analysis script.
This is much more convenient. It also has the advantage that
everything needed to reproduce your graphs can be included in a
single file.
The new grstyle package supports such practice. It provides
commands that let you change the graph settings on the fly. It
works by maintaining a temporary scheme file in the background.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 16
Overview of new Stata commands
There are two new packages: grstyle and palettes.
The grstyle package contains commands to change graph settings
from within a do-file.
grstyle init initialize the settings
grstyle scheme entry add a single scheme entry
grstyle set ... add composite settings
grstyle type view the settings
grstyle clear clear the settings
The palettes package contains commands to manage colors,
marker symbols, and line patterns. These commands are used by
grstyle, but they can also be used separately.
colorpalette retrieve a color palette
symbolpalette retrieve a symbol palette
linepalette retrieve a line pattern palette
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 18
Basic procedure
The basic procedure is to first call grstyle init, then add the
desired settings using a series of grstyle commands, and then
create the graphs:
set scheme schemename
grstyle init
grstyle ...
grstyle ...
.
.
.
graph command
graph command
.
.
.
grstyle clear
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 20
Example
Here’s the graph of before, using the s2color scheme (Stata’s
default):
. set scheme s2color
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Now let’s change how things look.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 21
Example
Step 1: get rid of background color, change the rendering of the
grid, use horizontal labels on the Y axis
. grstyle init
. grstyle color background white
. grstyle color major_grid dimgray
. grstyle linewidth major_grid thin
. grstyle yesno draw_major_hgrid yes
. grstyle yesno grid_draw_min yes
. grstyle yesno grid_draw_max yes
. grstyle anglestyle vertical_tick horizontal
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
The settings added by grstyle use scheme entry syntax. The
syntax of scheme entries is
attribute element style
See help scheme entries.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 22
Example
Step 2: use larger marker symbols and make them transparent
. grstyle symbolsize p large
. grstyle color p1markline navy%0
. grstyle color p1markfill navy%70
. grstyle color p2markline maroon%0
. grstyle color p2markfill maroon%70
. grstyle color p3markline forest_green%0
. grstyle color p3markfill forest_green%70
. grstyle color p4markline dkorange%0
. grstyle color p4markfill dkorange%70
. grstyle color p5markline teal%0
. grstyle color p5markfill teal%70
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 23
Example
Step 3: move the legend to the right and remove the frame
. grstyle clockdir legend_position 4
. grstyle numstyle legend_cols 1
. grstyle linestyle legend none
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 24
Composite settings
I assume you got the idea.
But you probably ask yourself:
I
“Wasn’t the goal to make things easy? This still looks pretty
complicated to me.”
Yes, scheme entry syntax (see help scheme entries) is unfamiliar
and hard to remember.
This is why there is a command called grstyle set that can be
used to generate scheme entries for some frequently used settings.
grstyle set has various subcommands to determine the style of
background and coordinate system, the legend, confidence areas,
colors, symbols, line pattern, and sizes.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 27
Background and coordinate system
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain, horizontal grid noextend
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 28
. grstyle init
. grstyle set mesh, horizontal compact minor
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. grstyle init
. grstyle set imesh, horizontal minor
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1 rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 29
The legend
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain
. grstyle set legend 10, inside
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. grstyle init
. grstyle set imesh, horizontal compact minor
. grstyle set legend 4, nobox
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 30
Transparent CIs
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain, grid
. grstyle set ci
. twoway (scatter price? length) ///
> (lpolyci price length if foreign==0) ///
> (lpolyci price length if foreign==1) ///
> , ytitle(Price) legend(off)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
140 160 180 200 220 240
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 31
Colors
. grstyle init
. grstyle set imesh, horizontal compact minor
. grstyle set legend 4, nobox
. grstyle set color hue, n(5) opacity(50)
. grstyle set symbolsize large
. scatter price? weight, ytitle(Price)
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 1
rep78 == 2
rep78 == 3
rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain
. grstyle set color RdYlGn, n(5)
. graph hbar price?, stack percent ///
> over(foreign) legend(off)
0 20 40 60 80 100
percent
Foreign
Domestic
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 32
Colors
A large number of color palettes is available.
I
palettes from official Stata’s scheme files
I
palettes from user contributed scheme files
I
HCL (Hue-Chroma-Luminance) and HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value)
color generators
I
palette collections such as ColorBrewer (Brewer et al. 2003)
I
etc.
Can also specify custom colors in RGB, CMYK, HSV, HCL, or Hex
(web colors).
Can adjust intensity and opacity (Stata 15).
See http://repec.sowi.unibe.ch/stata/palettes/
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 33
Symbols and line patterns
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain
. grstyle set color Set1
. grstyle set symbol
. grstyle set lpattern
. twoway (connected price3-price5 weight, sort), ///
> ytitle(Price)
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
Price
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Weight (lbs.)
rep78 == 3 rep78 == 4
rep78 == 5
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 34
Sizes
A specific feature of grstyle set is that it can set absolute sizes
(inch, pt, cm, or mm).
Sizes in Stata graphs are always relative. The procedure therefore is
to first use grstyle set graphsize to determine the size of the
graph.
After that, use grstyle set size to set the size of text etc. There
are also commands for symbol sizes, line widths, and margins.
Of course, the target sizes will only be preserved as long as you do
not change the graph size.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 35
Sizes
. grstyle init
. grstyle set plain, grid
. grstyle set legend 2
. grstyle set symbol Oh
. grstyle set graphsize 6cm 9cm
. grstyle set size 10pt: heading
. grstyle set size 8pt: subheading axis_title
. grstyle set size 6pt: tick_label key_label
. grstyle set symbolsize 1 2 3 4 5, pt
. grstyle set linewidth .8pt: plineplot
. grstyle set linewidth .4pt: pmark legend axisline tick major_grid
. grstyle set margin zero
. twoway (scatter price? weight) (lfit price weight), title("Title (10pt)") ///
> subtitle("Subtitle (8pt)") xtitle("X axis title (8pt)") ///
> ytitle("Y axis title (8pt)") ///
> legend(order(1 "1pt" 2 "2pt" 3 "3pt" 4 "4pt" 5 "5pt" 6 ".8pt"))
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 36
Summary
grstyle provides a tool to change graph settings from within a
do-file. Manual editing of scheme files is no longer needed.
grstyle set is a powerful convenience command to define a wide
variety of style settings without having to know much about scheme
entry syntax.
colorpalette provides a versatile color management system.
More information and examples:
I
http://repec.sowi.unibe.ch/stata/grstyle
I
http://repec.sowi.unibe.ch/stata/palettes
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 39
References
Atz, U. 2011. SCHEME_TUFTE: Stata module to provide a Tufte-inspired
graphics scheme. Available from
https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457285.html.
Bischof, D. 2017a. G538SCHEMES: module to provide graphics schemes for
http://fivethirtyeight.com. Available from
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s458404.html.
Bischof, D. 2017b. New graphic schemes for Stata: plotplain and plottig. The
Stata Journal 17(3): 748–759.
Brewer, C. A., G. W. Hatchard, M. A. Harrower. 2003. ColorBrewer in Print: A
Catalog of Color Schemes for Maps. Cartography and Geographic Information
Science 30(1): 5–32.
Briatte, F. 2013. SCHEME-BURD: Stata module to provide a
ColorBrewer-inspired graphics scheme with qualitative and blue-to-red diverging
colors. Available from http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457623.html.
Buchanan, B. 2015. BREWSCHEME: Stata module for generating customized
graph scheme files. Available from
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s458050.html.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 40
References
Juul, S. 2003. Lean mainstream schemes for Stata 8 graphics. The Stata Journal
3(3): 295-301.
Morris, T. 2013. SCHEME-MRC: Stata module to provide graphics scheme for
UK Medical Research Council. Available from
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s457703.html.
Morris, T. 2015. SCHEME-TFL: Stata module to provide graph scheme, based
on Transport for London’s corporate colour pallette. Available from
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s458103.html.
Newson, R. 2005. SCHEME_RBN1MONO: Stata module to provide minimal
monochrome graphics schemes. Statistical Software Components S456505,
Boston College Department of Economics. Available from
https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s456505.html.
Ben Jann (University of Bern) grstyle Konstanz, 22.06.2018 41
