Installation

Install flextable from CRAN or GitHub and verify your setup.

Install from CRAN

The stable release of flextable is available on CRAN. Install it with:

install.packages("flextable")

This is the recommended installation for most users.

Install the development version

The development version is hosted on GitHub and may include new features and fixes not yet on CRAN:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("davidgohel/flextable")

The development version may be less stable than the CRAN release. Use it if you need a specific recent fix or feature that has not been released yet.

Dependencies

flextable imports the following packages, which are installed automatically from CRAN:

Package	Minimum version	Purpose
data.table	1.13.0	Fast internal data manipulation
gdtools	0.5.0	Font metrics and text rendering
htmltools	—	HTML generation
knitr	—	R Markdown / Quarto integration
officer	0.7.3	Word and PowerPoint document creation
ragg	—	High-quality PNG rendering
rlang	—	Tidy evaluation utilities
rmarkdown	2.0	R Markdown document rendering
uuid	0.1-4	Unique identifiers for table elements
xml2	—	XML manipulation for Open XML formats
graphics, grDevices, grid	—	R base graphics
stats, utils	—	R base utilities

Optional packages

The following packages extend flextable’s capabilities. Install them as needed:

Image and PDF export

install.packages(c("webshot2", "magick", "pdftools"))

• webshot2 — save tables as PNG or SVG images
• magick — image processing
• pdftools — read and manipulate PDF files

Statistical summaries

install.packages(c("broom", "broom.mixed", "lme4", "nlme", "mgcv"))

These packages enable as_flextable() to convert model objects from common modelling packages.

ggplot2 and patchwork integration

install.packages(c("ggplot2", "patchwork", "gtable"))

Use gen_grob() with patchwork to combine flextables and ggplot2 plots in a single figure.

officedown (enhanced R Markdown for Word)

install.packages("officedown")

officedown extends R Markdown with additional Word layout controls and works closely with flextable.

bookdown cross-references

install.packages("bookdown")

Minimum version 0.40. Required for numbered table captions and cross-references in bookdown documents.

Load the package

After installation, load flextable in your R session:

library(flextable)

Check the installed version

packageVersion("flextable")

You can also view the full list of installed metadata:

packageDescription("flextable")

R Markdown setup

flextable works in R Markdown documents without any extra configuration — just load the package in a setup chunk and print the flextable object in a code chunk.

library(flextable)

flextable(head(airquality))

Call set_flextable_defaults() in your setup chunk to apply consistent fonts, sizes, and colors across all tables in the document. This avoids repeating the same formatting calls for every table.

For example, a typical setup chunk looks like this:

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flextable)

set_flextable_defaults(
  font.family = "Arial",
  font.size = 11,
  font.color = "black",
  border.color = "#666666",
  padding = 5,
  table.layout = "autofit"
)
```

Chunk options for captions

flextable supports knitr chunk options for table captions without needing to call set_caption() directly:

```{r}
#| tab.id: tbl-airquality
#| tab.cap: "Air quality measurements, New York, 1973"
flextable(head(airquality))
```

Option	Description
tab.cap	Caption text
tab.id	Caption bookmark or cross-reference ID
tab.cap.style	Word style name for the caption paragraph
tab.topcaption	Display caption above the table (default TRUE)

Verify the installation

Run this snippet to confirm everything is working:

library(flextable)

ft <- flextable(head(mtcars)) |>
  theme_vanilla() |>
  autofit()

ft

If the table renders without errors, your installation is complete.

Next steps

Quickstart

Create and export your first flextable

Global defaults

Set font, color, and layout defaults once for all tables