ggthemes Package

Overview

Some extra geoms, scales, and themes for ggplot, including:

Geoms

geom_rangeframe : Tufte’s range frame
geom_tufteboxplot: Tufte’s box plot

Themes

theme_base: a theme resembling the default base graphics in R. See also theme_par.
theme_calc: a theme based on LibreOffice Calc.
theme_economist: a theme based on the plots in the The Economist magazine.
theme_excel: a theme replicating the classic ugly gray charts in Excel
theme_few: theme from Stephen Few’s “Practical Rules for Using Color in Charts”.
theme_fivethirtyeight: a theme based on the plots at fivethirtyeight.com.
theme_gdocs: a theme based on Google Docs.
theme_hc: a theme based on Highcharts JS.
theme_par: a theme that uses the current values of the base graphics parameters in par.
theme_pander: a theme to use with the pander package.
theme_solarized: a theme using the solarized color palette.
theme_stata: themes based on Stata graph schemes.
theme_tufte: a minimal ink theme based on Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
theme_wsj: a theme based on the plots in the The Wall Street Journal.

Scales

scale_colour_calc, scale_shape_calc: color and shape palettes from LibreOffice Calc.
scale_colour_colorblind: Colorblind safe palette from http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/.
scale_colour_economist: colors used in plots in plots in The Economist.
scale_colour_excel: colors from new and old Excel.
scale_colour_few: color palettes from Stephen Few’s “Practical Rules for Using Color in Charts”.
scale_colour_gdocs: color palette from Google Docs.
scale_colour_hc: a theme based on Highcharts JS.
scale_colour_solarized: Solarized colors
scale_colour_stata, scale_shapes_stata, scale_linetype_stata: color, shape, and linetype palettes from Stata graph schemes.
scale_colour_tableau, scale_shape_tableau: color and shape palettes from Tableau.
scale_colour_pander, scale_fill_pander: scales to use with the pander package.
scale_colour_ptol, scale_fill_ptol: color palettes from Paul Tol’s Colour Schemes
scale_shape_cleveland, scale_shape_tremmel, scale_shape_circlefill: shape scales from classic works in visual perception: Cleveland, Tremmel (1995), and Lewandowsky and Spence (1989).

Most of these scales also have associates palettes, as used in the scales package.

Miscellaneous

bank_slopes: Find the optimal aspect ratio to bank slopes to 45 degrees

Examples

library("ggplot2")
library("ggthemes")
library("scales")

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = wt, y = mpg)) +
  geom_point() +
  ggtitle("Cars")

p2 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = wt, y = mpg, colour = factor(gear))) +
  geom_point() +
  ggtitle("Cars")

p3 <- p2 + facet_wrap(~ am)

Tufte theme and geoms

Minimal theme and geoms based on plots in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

p + geom_rangeframe() +
  theme_tufte() + 
  scale_x_continuous(breaks = extended_range_breaks()(mtcars$wt)) +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks = extended_range_breaks()(mtcars$mpg))

The function geom_tufteboxplot creates several variants of Tufte’s minimal-ink boxplots. For a boxplot with a point indicating the median, a gap indicating the interquartile range, and lines for whiskers:

p4 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(factor(cyl), mpg))

p4 + theme_tufte(ticks=FALSE) + geom_tufteboxplot()

For a boxplot with an offset line indicating the interquartile range and a gap indicating the median:

p4 + theme_tufte(ticks=FALSE) +
  geom_tufteboxplot(median.type = "line")

For a boxplot with an line indicating the interquartile range, a gap indicating the median, and points indicating the minimum and maximum:

p4 + theme_tufte(ticks=FALSE) +
  geom_tufteboxplot(median.type = "line", whisker.type = 'point', hoffset = 0)

For a boxplot with a wide line indicating the interquartile range, a gap indicating the median, and lines indicating the minimum and maximum

p4 + theme_tufte(ticks=FALSE) +
  geom_tufteboxplot(median.type = "line", whisker.type = 'line', hoffset = 0, width = 3)

## Warning: position_dodge requires non-overlapping x intervals

Economist theme

A theme that approximates the style of plots in The Economist magazine.

p2 + theme_economist() + scale_colour_economist() +
  scale_y_continuous(position = "right")

Solarized theme

A theme and color and fill scales based on the Solarized palette.

The light theme.

p2 + theme_solarized() +
  scale_colour_solarized("blue")

The dark theme.

p2 + theme_solarized(light = FALSE) +
  scale_colour_solarized("red")

An alternative theme.

p2 + theme_solarized_2(light = FALSE) +
  scale_colour_solarized("blue")

Stata theme

Themes and scales (color, fill, linetype, shapes) based on the graph schemes in Stata.

p2 + theme_stata() + scale_colour_stata()

Excel 2003 theme

For that classic ugly look and feel. For ironic purposes only. 3D bars and pies not included. Please never use this theme.

p2 + theme_excel() + scale_colour_excel()

ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = clarity, fill = cut)) +
  geom_bar() +
  scale_fill_excel() +
  theme_excel()

Inverse Gray Theme

Inverse of theme_gray, i.e. white plot area and gray background.

p2 + theme_igray()

Fivethirtyeight theme

Theme and color palette based on the plots at fivethirtyeight.com.

p2 + geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = FALSE) +
  scale_color_fivethirtyeight("cyl") +
  theme_fivethirtyeight()

Paul Tol Scales

Color palette based on Paul Tol’s Colour Schemes.

p2 + geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = FALSE) +
  scale_color_ptol("cyl") +
  theme_minimal()

ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = clarity, fill = cut)) +
  geom_bar() +
  scale_fill_ptol() +
  theme_minimal()

Tableau Scales

Color, fill, and shape scales based on those used in the Tableau software.

p2 + theme_igray() + scale_colour_tableau()

p2 + theme_igray() + scale_colour_tableau("colorblind10")

Stephen Few’s Practical Rules for Using Color …

Color palette and theme based on Stephen Few’s “Practical Rules for Using Color in Charts”.

p2 + theme_few() + scale_colour_few()

Wall Street Journal

Theme and some color palettes based on plots in the The Wall Street Journal.

p2 + theme_wsj() + scale_colour_wsj("colors6", "")

Base and Par Themes

Theme that resembles the default theme in the base graphics in R.

p2 + theme_base()

Par theme

Theme that uses the current values of base graphics stored in par. Not all par parameters, are supported, and not all are relevant to ggplot2 themes.

par(fg = "blue", bg = "gray", col.lab = "red", font.lab = 3)
p2 + theme_par()

GDocs Theme

Theme and color palettes based on the defaults in Google Docs.

p2 + theme_gdocs() + scale_color_gdocs()

Calc Theme

Theme and color and shape palettes based on the defaults in LibreOffice Calc.

p2 + theme_calc() + scale_color_calc()

Pander Theme

Theme and color palettes based on the pander package.

p2 + theme_pander() + scale_colour_pander()

ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = clarity, fill = cut)) +
  geom_bar() +
  theme_pander() +
  scale_fill_pander()

Highcharts theme

A theme that approximates the style of plots in Highcharts JS.

p2 + theme_hc() + scale_colour_hc()

p2 + theme_hc(bgcolor = "darkunica") +
  scale_colour_hc("darkunica")

dtemp <- data.frame(months = factor(rep(substr(month.name,1,3), 4), levels = substr(month.name,1,3)),
                    city = rep(c("Tokyo", "New York", "Berlin", "London"), each = 12),
                    temp = c(7.0, 6.9, 9.5, 14.5, 18.2, 21.5, 25.2, 26.5, 23.3, 18.3, 13.9, 9.6,
                             -0.2, 0.8, 5.7, 11.3, 17.0, 22.0, 24.8, 24.1, 20.1, 14.1, 8.6, 2.5,
                             -0.9, 0.6, 3.5, 8.4, 13.5, 17.0, 18.6, 17.9, 14.3, 9.0, 3.9, 1.0,
                             3.9, 4.2, 5.7, 8.5, 11.9, 15.2, 17.0, 16.6, 14.2, 10.3, 6.6, 4.8))

ggplot(dtemp, aes(x = months, y = temp, group = city, color = city)) +
  geom_line() +
  geom_point(size = 1.1) + 
  ggtitle("Monthly Average Temperature") +
  theme_hc() +
  scale_colour_hc()

ggplot(dtemp, aes(x = months, y = temp, group = city, color = city)) +
  geom_line() + 
  geom_point(size = 1.1) + 
  ggtitle("Monthly Average Temperature") +
  theme_hc(bgcolor = "darkunica") +
  scale_fill_hc("darkunica")

Maps theme

A theme useful for displaying maps.

library("maps")
us <- fortify(map_data("state"), region = "region")
ggplot() +
  geom_map(data  =  us, map = us,
           aes(x = long, y = lat, map_id = region, group = group),
           fill = "white", color = "black", size = 0.25) +
  coord_map("albers", lat0 = 39, lat1 = 45) +
  theme_map()

## Warning: Ignoring unknown aesthetics: x, y

Canva Color palettes

150+ color palettes by Canva derived from photos and “impactful websites”. These palettes were previously adapted for Tableau and Excel.

show_col(canva_pal("Fresh and bright")(4))

show_col(canva_pal("Timeless and nautical")(4))

Introduction to ggthemes

Jeffrey B. Arnold

2018-04-02