From b682c8a24da37855584e390e1b0fe8168cc6d70d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Teun van den Brand <tahvdbrand@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2024 16:45:26 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] allow saving pages

---
 R/save.R | 7 +++++--
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/R/save.R b/R/save.R
index b06c567b2e..177cb71fe0 100644
--- a/R/save.R
+++ b/R/save.R
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ ggsave <- function(filename, plot = get_last_plot(),
   dim <- plot_dim(c(width, height), scale = scale, units = units,
     limitsize = limitsize, dpi = dpi)
 
-  if (is_null(bg)) {
+  if (is_null(bg) && is.ggplot(plot)) {
     bg <- calc_element("plot.background", plot_theme(plot))$fill %||% "transparent"
   }
   old_dev <- grDevices::dev.cur()
@@ -111,7 +111,10 @@ ggsave <- function(filename, plot = get_last_plot(),
     grDevices::dev.off()
     if (old_dev > 1) grDevices::dev.set(old_dev) # restore old device unless null device
   }))
-  grid.draw(plot)
+  if (!is_bare_list(plot)) {
+    plot <- list(plot)
+  }
+  lapply(plot, grid.draw)
 
   invisible(filename)
 }

From 8aadf30280247d22f3ae3980f318cff27863fdd3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Teun van den Brand <tahvdbrand@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:51:29 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] helper to deal with background

---
 R/save.R | 15 ++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/R/save.R b/R/save.R
index 198fec660f..523f2ef29b 100644
--- a/R/save.R
+++ b/R/save.R
@@ -101,10 +101,8 @@ ggsave <- function(filename, plot = get_last_plot(),
   dev <- validate_device(device, filename, dpi = dpi)
   dim <- plot_dim(c(width, height), scale = scale, units = units,
     limitsize = limitsize, dpi = dpi)
+  bg  <- get_plot_background(plot, bg)
 
-  if (is_null(bg) && is.ggplot(plot)) {
-    bg <- calc_element("plot.background", plot_theme(plot))$fill %||% "transparent"
-  }
   old_dev <- grDevices::dev.cur()
   dev(filename = filename, width = dim[1], height = dim[2], bg = bg, ...)
   on.exit(utils::capture.output({
@@ -238,6 +236,17 @@ plot_dim <- function(dim = c(NA, NA), scale = 1, units = "in",
   dim
 }
 
+get_plot_background <- function(plot, bg = NULL, default = "transparent") {
+  if (!is.null(bg)) {
+    return(bg)
+  }
+  plot <- if (is_bare_list(plot)) plot[[1]] else plot
+  if (!is.ggplot(plot)) {
+    return(default)
+  }
+  calc_element("plot.background", plot_theme(plot))$fill %||% default
+}
+
 validate_device <- function(device, filename = NULL, dpi = 300, call = caller_env()) {
   force(filename)
   force(dpi)

From ada4759aa970f33f09c625ff5ee92b6fff1da7ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Teun van den Brand <tahvdbrand@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:52:14 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] add news bullet

---
 NEWS.md | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 67d35b9878..b9b3fa8b45 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -310,6 +310,8 @@
   (@teunbrand, #3669). 
 * Added `scale_{x/y}_time(date_breaks, date_minor_breaks, date_labels)` 
   (@teunbrand, #4335).
+* `ggsave()` can write a multi-page pdf file when provided with a list of plots 
+  (@teunbrand, #5093).
 
 # ggplot2 3.5.1