Default ggplot2 background
Let’s start with a very basic ggplot2 scatterplot. By default, ggplot2 offers a grey background with white major and minor gridlines.
It is possible to change that thanks to the theme() function. Keep reading to learn how!
# Load ggplot2
library(ggplot2)
# Very basic chart
basic <- ggplot( mtcars , aes(x=mpg, y=wt)) +
geom_point()
basicBackground color: plot.background and panel.background
Two options of the theme() functions are available to control the map background color. plot_background controls the color of the whole chart. panel.background controls the part between the axis.
Both are rectangles, their features is thus specified through an element_rect() function.
basic + theme(
plot.background = element_rect(fill = "green"),
panel.background = element_rect(fill = "red", colour="blue")
)Customize the grid: panel.grid.major and panel.grid.minor
Two main types of grid exist with ggplot2: major and minor. They are controled thanks to the panel.grid.major and panel.grid.minor options.
Once more, you can add the options .y or .x at the end of the function name to control one orientation only.
Features are wrapped in an element_line() function. Specifying element_blanck() will simply removing the grid.
