Inserting an icon contained in a package in a Quarto document

[arnaudgallou]

Description

I've an R package that generates author information (author lists, contributions, etc.) for scientific writing. There's a feature to add ORCID icons after authors' name. The ORCID icon is shipped with the package and imported in a document via system.file() (https://github.com/arnaudgallou/plume/blob/main/R/icon.R#L101). This feature is now broken since Quarto 1.5 because all paths must now be relative to Quarto documents (see arnaudgallou/plume#109).

This is definitely not an essential feature of my package but since the architecture is there, I was wondering what are my options to keep that feature alive. Ideally, I'd prefer not to write the icon onto the disk, although that's probably what you would recommend. Is there any alternative?

I was initially thinking of using fontawesome::fa(). Unfortunately I don't think there's a way to make it work for pdf because it seems that fontawesome::fa() needs to be evaluated in its own code chunk to generate an icon that can then be used in a markdown link (and later appended to authors via a function like paste()).

[Steinthal]

Regarding fontawesome: Have a look at the Font Awesome Extension for Quarto.

[mcanouil]

The only way to work around this would be for your functions to emit URLs using GitHub raw paths.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arnaudgallou/plume/refs/heads/main/inst/icons/orcid.svg

[cderv]

Ideally, I'd prefer not to write the icon onto the disk, although that's probably what you would recommend.

And to comment on this: this is indeed the other way when online resources is not an option. It is usually either disk (and quarto expect local to project for reproducibility) or online.

So it would work if you offer a kind of install function that your user would use when starting a project with Plume. Otherwise, you could also consider a companion Quarto Extension to your package, possibly that could live in your package, as installing from a local path is ok. But this would be worth it if you need more than just shipping resources to the user.

So it is either

• online resources globally accessible
• local resources, and they need to be within the project, according to current Quarto expectations.

[cderv]

Another way could be to base64 encode your image.

url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arnaudgallou/plume/refs/heads/main/inst/icons/orcid.svg"

# Download SVG content using base R
svg_text <- readLines(url, warn = FALSE)
svg_text <- paste(svg_text, collapse = "\n")

# Encode SVG content to base64 using xfun
svg_base64 <- xfun::base64_encode(charToRaw(svg_text))

# Create data URI
data_uri <- paste0("data:image/svg+xml;base64,", svg_base64)

cat(plume:::md_image(data_uri, size = 20, style = "", spacing = ""))
#> ![](data:image/svg+xml;base64,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){height=20px}

Reprex doc

url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arnaudgallou/plume/refs/heads/main/inst/icons/orcid.svg"

# Download SVG content using base R
svg_text <- readLines(url, warn = FALSE)
svg_text <- paste(svg_text, collapse = "\n")

# Encode SVG content to base64 using xfun
svg_base64 <- xfun::base64_encode(charToRaw(svg_text))

# Create data URI
data_uri <- paste0("data:image/svg+xml;base64,", svg_base64)

#+ results='asis'
cat(plume:::md_image(data_uri, size = 20, style = "", spacing = ""))

Copy and reprex::reprex()

However, sometime base64 image don't show everywhere for security reason. This is usually used for embedding small images inline in trusted environments. For example, Github issue does not render base64 markdown inserted image. But here is the reprex output.

[arnaudgallou]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the super helpful answers! Will try all these solutions and see which one is the easiest to implement.