Custom Function for Publication-Ready Tables

This is the code I use to make my tables ready for publication.

Purpose: Styling functions for producing publication-ready tables. All tables follow APA-adjacent formatting

Usage: Pipe any flextable into my_flextable() as the final styling step. Works with both native flextables, and gtsummary tables converted via as_flex_table()

Call this function as the last step in a flextable pipeline.

#' apply consistent styling to a flex table
#'
#' @param ft - a flextable object (either via `flextable()` or `gtsummary::as_flex_table()`)
#' @param font_size - numeric. font size applied to all parts. default = 12
#' @param spacing - numeric. line spacing multiplier applied to all parts. default = 1
#' @param font_name - character. font family applied to all parts. default = times new roman
#'
#' @return - styled flextable object
#'
my_flextable <- function(
  ft,
  font_size = 12,
  spacing = 1,
  font_name = "Times New Roman"
) {
  n_cols <- ncol_keys(ft)

  ft |>
    # remove existing borders
    border_remove() |>
    # fix borders to black
    hline_top(border = fp_border(color = "black", width = 1), part = "all") |>
    hline_bottom(
      border = fp_border(color = "black", width = 1),
      part = "all"
    ) |>
    hline_bottom(
      border = fp_border(color = "black", width = 1),
      part = "header"
    ) |>
    # tight padding for compact tables
    #flextable::padding(padding = 1, part = "all") |>
    # compact row height (default = 1)
    flextable::line_spacing(space = spacing, part = "all") |>
    # uniform font size (default = 12)
    flextable::fontsize(size = font_size, part = "all") |>
    # uniform font family (default = times new roman)
    flextable::font(fontname = font_name, part = "all") |>
    # table layout/properties:
    flextable::set_table_properties(
      # stretch columns to fill available width
      layout = "autofit",
      # use 100% of text area width (0-1 scale)
      width = 1
    )
}

Examples

# Native flextable 
mtcars |> head() |> flextable() |> my_flextable() 

# GT summary table 
gtsummary::tbl_summary(mtcars) |> as_flex_table() |> my_flextable()

# Override defaults 
flextable(mtcars) |> my_flextable(font_size = 9, font_name = "Arial")