modelsummary to latex landscape

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Summary

Issue: Wide tables generated by modelsummary in R cannot be properly displayed in LaTeX landscape mode, causing layout issues.
Goal: Embed the table in a LaTeX landscape environment alongside a section header on the same page.

Root Cause

  • modelsummary outputs tables with fixed dimensions that exceed page width in portrait mode.
  • LaTeX landscape environment does not automatically adjust table placement or resizing.
  • theme_rotate() and placement options in modelsummary fail to integrate with LaTeX’s landscape package.

Why This Happens in Real Systems

  • Tool Limitations: modelsummary and tinytable lack native support for LaTeX landscape integration.
  • LaTeX Constraints: The landscape environment requires manual adjustments for content alignment.
  • Package Conflicts: modelsummary‘s resizing/rotation options do not override LaTeX’s page layout rules.

Real-World Impact

  • Unreadable Tables: Wide tables overflow page margins, rendering them unusable.
  • Manual Workarounds: Requires manual edits to .tex files, increasing production time.
  • Inconsistent Layouts: Section headers and tables may appear on separate pages.

Example or Code (if necessary and relevant)

library(modelsummary)
mod % 
  save_tt("path/to/file.tex")
\usepackage{pdflscape}
\begin{landscape}
\section{Model Summary}
\label{app:model}
\vspace*{-1em}
\input{"path/to/file.tex"}
\end{landscape}

How Senior Engineers Fix It

  • Manual Resizing: Use LaTeX’s adjustbox package to scale tables: 
    \usepackage{adjustbox}
\begin{adjustbox}{width=\textwidth,totalheight=\textheight,keepaspectratio}
\input{"path/to/file.tex"}
\end{adjustbox}
  • Custom Templates: Create a modelsummary template with landscape-friendly dimensions.
  • Split Tables: Divide wide tables into sub-tables using modelsummary‘s split_tables option.

Why Juniors Miss It

  • Overreliance on Defaults: Assume modelsummary handles all LaTeX formatting.
  • Lack of LaTeX Expertise: Unfamiliarity with landscape and adjustbox packages.
  • Ignoring Warnings: Ignore modelsummary‘s limitations in documentation.
  • Skipping Manual Testing: Fail to verify table layout in compiled LaTeX output.

Key Takeaway: Combine R tooling with manual LaTeX adjustments for complex layouts.

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