How to convert Legends into graphics

Question

According to the documentation

BarLegend is displayed in StandardForm as a graphics object

and it do looks like a normal graphics in front end.

However,

BarLegend["Rainbow"]//FullForm

still gives BarLegend["Rainbow"]

and

Show[BarLegend["Rainbow"]]

will give errors

Show::gtype: BarLegend is not a type of graphics.

So is there a way to convert legends to graphics objects?

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered May 08 '18 at 13:57

8

First @ Cases[
  ToBoxes @ BarLegend["Rainbow"],
  gr_GraphicsBox :> ToExpression[gr],
  ∞
]

answered May 08 '18 at 13:57

Kuba

Oh, my god. Any explanations why you are so fast? : ) – matheorem May 08 '18 at 13:59

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '18 at 22:59

2

Also

ToExpression[MakeBoxes[BarLegend["Rainbow"]][[1,1]]][[1]]

answered May 08 '18 at 22:59

kglr

It works! Thank you so much! – matheorem May 09 '18 at 00:24
@kglr: Does this also work for SwatchLegend? I tried it with your code but did not worked... – M.A. Mar 13 '21 at 10:21
@M.A., for SwatchLegend you can use Cases[MakeBoxes[SwatchLegend[{Red, Green}, {"a", "b"}]], TooltipBox[a_, ___] :> Graphics @@ a, All]. (Similarly, for PointLegend and LineLegend) – kglr Mar 13 '21 at 23:59
@kglr what is TooltipBox? A function? – M.A. Mar 15 '21 at 08:17

2 Answers2