Packages

For this post, we need to load the following library:

library(kableExtra)

Dataset

We create a simple dataset with Nobel Prizes (2020). We use 3 columns: name, field and image.

df = data.frame(name = c("E. Charpentier","R. Penrose", "L. Glück", "M. Houghton"),
                field = c("Chemistry", "Physics", "Litterature", "Medicine"),
                image = "" # keep it empty
                )

Add images

The kableExtra relies on the kable package and allows the use of the %>% (pipe) symbole. The main function is named kbl() and is similar to kable().

In order to add images in column, we need to use the column_spec() function with the image argument. Also, to change dimensions of images, we use the spec_image() function into the image arg.

# we use images from the internet, but it works exactly the same
# for images locally stored on your computer!
path_images = c("https://www.nobelprize.org/images/charpentier-111763-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/penrose-111758-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/gluck-111767-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/houghton-111770-landscape-mini-2x.jpg")

df %>%
  kbl(booktabs = T, align = "c") %>%
  kable_styling() %>%
  kable_paper(full_width = T) %>%
  column_spec(3, image = spec_image(path_images, 280, 200) # dimensions of the images
              )

name	field	image
E. Charpentier	Chemistry
R. Penrose	Physics
L. Glück	Litterature
M. Houghton	Medicine

Add links

The row_spec() and column_spec() functions have a color and background arguments that will change the colors, either of the background or the cell content.

urls = c("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuelle_Charpentier",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Glück",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Houghton")

df %>%
  kbl(booktabs = T, align = "c") %>%
  kable_styling() %>%
  kable_paper(full_width = T) %>%
  column_spec(1, link = urls)

name	field	image
E. Charpentier	Chemistry
R. Penrose	Physics
L. Glück	Litterature
M. Houghton	Medicine

Combine images and links

The color and background argument can also takes a vector of colors:

path_images = c("https://www.nobelprize.org/images/charpentier-111763-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/penrose-111758-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/gluck-111767-landscape-mini-2x.jpg",
                "https://www.nobelprize.org/images/houghton-111770-landscape-mini-2x.jpg")

urls = c("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuelle_Charpentier",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Glück",
         "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Houghton")

df %>%
  kbl(booktabs = T, align = "c") %>%
  kable_styling() %>%
  kable_material(c("striped", "hover", "condensed", "responsive")) %>%
  column_spec(1, link = urls, bold=TRUE) %>%
  column_spec(1, link = urls, bold=TRUE) %>%
  column_spec(3, image = spec_image(path_images, 280, 200))

name	field	image
E. Charpentier	Chemistry
R. Penrose	Physics
L. Glück	Litterature
M. Houghton	Medicine

Conclusion

This post explained how to add images and links in a table using the kableExtra library. For more of this package, see the dedicated section or the table section.

Related chart types

Line plot

Area

Stacked area

Streamchart

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