Using the Tufte-Latex class in Sweave

Question

I must confess that today is my first day using either Sweave or LaTeX. Yes, it's true. I realized today that my "before 40" bucket list was not going to resolve itself in the absence of my involvement. And like so many men of my generation, learning Sweave and LaTeX is on my bucket list.

So with that long preamble, I have a very nice first Sweave document:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\title{Look Mom! I'm doing \LaTeX}
\author{JD Long}
\maketitle
\section{Where I get both funky and fresh}
<<make some randomness>>=
  set.seed(12)
  t <- rnorm(100)
@
and an example plot
\begin{center}
<<fig=TRUE,echo=FALSE>>=
  plot(density(t))
@
\end{center}
This is a very simple example of how we might get started with Sweave. You know what comes next, right? That's right... Lorem Ipsum, ladies! 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin sed sem est. Pellentesque massa magna, ullamcorper eget lacinia sit amet, dignissim ac leo. Fusce hendrerit elit vitae lacus mollis suscipit. 
\end{document}

Which produces this wonderful output:

So that much is great. But what I really would like to do is start bringing in wonderful LaTeX classes like the Tufte-LaTeX class which, from what I understand, basically turns my documents into brilliant, inspired works of art.

So how would I bring the Tufte-LaTeX business into my Sweave document and use it to make my documents more magical?

Answer 1

I kind of like this as my standard header wrapped around your document:

\documentclass{tufte-handout}
\usepackage{amsmath}  % extended mathematics
\usepackage{booktabs} % book-quality tables
\usepackage{units}    % non-stacked fractions and better unit spacing
\usepackage{multicol} % multiple column layout facilities
\usepackage{lipsum}   % filler text
\usepackage{fancyvrb} % extended verbatim environments
  \fvset{fontsize=\normalsize}% default font size for fancy-verbatim environments
\usepackage{xspace}

I would note you should not put any markup in things like the title or author, as tufte-handout really doesn't do too well with it:

The Tufte classes are easily installed via TeXLive as the "tufte-latex" package, which includes the necessary material and some examples, if I recall correctly.

Answer 2

I guess this is more like a LaTeX question than an Sweave question. I used the tufte-handout class a long while ago with the pgfSweave package, and you can find an example here (it is one of my homeworks for a data mining course).

Since you guys have written down how to do it with Sweave, I do not have anything to add here, except that I really dislike the default style of Sweave. I mean LaTeX the environments defined using fancyvrb. The default font style in R graphics is also something I do not like. They can just ruin the beauty of the Tufte class. The pgfSweave package using tikzDevice is a lot better in terms of styles. Some of frustrations with Sweave (e.g. style) made me decide to rewrite a new engine knitr; it is available here.

Answer 3

I've used this template for making notes:

\documentclass{tufte-book}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\setkeys{Gin}{width=\linewidth,totalheight=\textheight,keepaspectratio}
% Prints a trailing space in a smart way.
\usepackage{xspace}


\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\newcommand{\tthdump}[1]{#1}
\usepackage{makeidx}
\makeindex

\title{My title}

\begin{document}
\setkeys{Gin}{width=1.1\marginparwidth} %% Sweave

 \section{Where I get both funky and fresh}
<<make some randomness>>=
  set.seed(12)
  t <- rnorm(100)
@
and an example plot
\begin{center}
<<fig=TRUE,echo=FALSE>>=
  plot(density(t))
@
\end{center}

%% a margin figure
<<a, fig=FALSE, echo=FALSE>>=
plot(density(t))
@ 
\begin{marginfigure}
<<fig=TRUE, echo=FALSE>>=
<<a>>
@   
\end{marginfigure}

This is a very simple example of how we might get started with Sweave. You know what comes next, right? That's right... Lorem Ipsum, ladies! 
\lipsum

\end{document}

Answer 4

As with many thing involving programming of some sort, I suggest separation of issues as a first strategy.

In other words, noodle with the Tufte class (that I haven't used in 22+ years of LaTeX ;-) til you are happy, then move what you want to use back to the Sweaving. Sweave does a number of funny things behind the back that can be confusing. [ And John just did that first part for you. ]

At lastly: if everything else fails do what I do and ask for (La)TeX help on tex.stackexchange.com ;-)