Transparent R plot background in VS Code Jupyter Notebook - How to set default white background?

Question

original issue on Github

Issue Description:

When generating R plots in VS Code's Jupyter Notebook (.ipynb files), the plot backgrounds appear transparent by default, making visualizations hard to read. This issue:

• ❌ Occurs in Jupyter Notebooks with R kernel
• ✅ Does NOT occur in standard R scripts (.R files)
• ✅ Python plots with matplotlib work normally in the same notebook

Minimal Reproducible Example:

x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
y <- c(2, 4, 6, 8, 10)

plot(x, y, type = "o", col = "blue", pch = 16, main = "Simple Plot")
legend("topleft", legend = "y = 2x", col = "blue", pch = 16, lty = 1)

Expected vs Actual Behavior:

	Result
Expected	White background (as in .R files)
Actual	Transparent background

Temporary Workaround:

par(bg = "white")  # Required before each plot
plot(...)  

• This manual solution is not ideal for notebooks with multiple plots

Environment:

• R kernel: 4.4.2
• jupyter_client: 8.6.0
• jupyter_core: 5.7.2
• jupyterlab: 4.2.5
• OS: Windows 11
• Tested on both dark/light themes in VS Code

Additional Context:

• Issue persists across notebook restarts
• No relevant jupyterlab/IRkernel settings found
• Graphics device: png() (default in Jupyter)

Question:

• How to permanently configure R plots in Jupyter Notebooks to use a white background by default, without manually adding par(bg = "white") before each plot?