The `gt` package

The gt package is an excellent way to create and customize nice table output in R. You can read more about this package on its github page. You can install it directly from the CRAN by running the following:

install.packages("gt")

Default gt table

Tables from gt are sober but highly customizable

library(gt)
library(dplyr)

# dataset
data = data.frame(
  Country = c("USA", "China", "India"),
  Capitals = c("Washington D.C.", "Beijing", "New Delhi"),
  Population = c(331, 1441, 1393),
  GDP = c(21.43, 14.34, 2.87)
)

# create and display the gt table (equivalent to "gt(data)")
data %>%
  gt()

Country	Capitals	Population	GDP
USA	Washington D.C.	331	21.43
China	Beijing	1441	14.34
India	New Delhi	1393	2.87

Add a title in markdown

The most practical and intuitive way to create a gt table is to use it in combination of the dplyr package.

We define a simple dataset and pass it to the gt() function.

Thanks to the tab_header() function, we can super easily add a title. And with the md() function we can write it in markdown.

library(gt)
library(dplyr)

# create and display the gt table 
data %>%
  gt() %>%
    tab_header(title = md("Some **title**"))

Country	Capitals	Population	GDP
Some title
USA	Washington D.C.	331	21.43
China	Beijing	1441	14.34
India	New Delhi	1393	2.87

Add a title in HTML

Thanks to the tab_header() function, we can super easily add title. And with the html() function we can write the text in HTML.

library(gt)
library(dplyr)

# create and display the gt table 
data %>%
  gt() %>%
    tab_header(title = html("<span style='color:red;'>A red title</span>"))

Country	Capitals	Population	GDP
A red title
USA	Washington D.C.	331	21.43
China	Beijing	1441	14.34
India	New Delhi	1393	2.87

Combine title and subtitle

Still with the tab_header() function, we can combine title and subtitle by just adding a subtitle argument:

library(gt)
library(dplyr)

# create and display the gt table 
data %>%
  gt() %>%
    tab_header(title = html("<span style='color:red;'>A <strong>red</strong> title</span>"),
               subtitle = md("This text will be *below the title* and is written in `markdown`"))

Country	Capitals	Population	GDP
A red title
This text will be below the title and is written in `markdown`
USA	Washington D.C.	331	21.43
China	Beijing	1441	14.34
India	New Delhi	1393	2.87

More complex example

In this example, we’ll add an image (the R logo) in the subtitle using html formatting. In this case, we also need the htmltools package.

library(gt)
library(dplyr)
library(htmltools)

# create and display the gt table 
data %>%
  gt() %>%
    tab_header(title = html("<span style='color:red;'>A <strong>red</strong> title</span>"),
               subtitle = tagList(
                 tags$div(style = css(`text-align` = "center"),
                          HTML(web_image("https://www.r-project.org/logo/Rlogo.png")
                     )
                   )
                 )
               )

Country	Capitals	Population	GDP
A red title

USA	Washington D.C.	331	21.43
China	Beijing	1441	14.34
India	New Delhi	1393	2.87

Conclusion

We now know how to customize your table titles with the gt package. There is much more you can do using this package, so feel free to visit the gt table section of the gallery to learn more about it and check other examples.

Customize your titles in your tables with gt table