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Overview

This article will demonstrate a random assortment of content, including some of which is quite advanced.

Change the stat of the layer
Change the position of the layer
Use + *_mode_* where axis-lines and gridlines are not as wanted
Reorder and/or reverse categorical variables
Drop unused categorical variable values
Transform scales to "log" etc
Change the *_position of positional axes
Add contrasting dark or light text on polygons
Use opacity with to emphasise/demphasise.
Use replace_seq to keep every nth label
Understand oob & clip
Use delayed evaluation

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
library(forcats)
library(stringr)
library(ggblanket)
library(palmerpenguins)
library(patchwork)

set_blanket()

1. Change the `stat` of the layer

The default stat of each gg_* function can be changed.

penguins |>
  gg_pointrange(
    stat = "summary", 
    x = species,
    y = flipper_length_mm, 
  )

library(ggforce)

ggplot2::economics |>
  slice_head(n = 35) |> 
  gg_path(
    stat = "bspline", n = 100,
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy,
    linewidth = 1,
  )

2. Change the `position` of the layer

The default position of each gg_* function can be changed.

penguins |> 
  gg_point(
    position = ggbeeswarm::position_quasirandom(),
    x = sex, 
    y = flipper_length_mm,
    col = sex,
    mode = light_mode_n(),
  )

3. Use `+ _mode_` where axis-lines and gridlines are not as wanted

Sometimes the plot might guess the removal of gridlines and axis-line/ticks incorrectly. In these situations, you can + *_mode_* on to the plot, and then remove whatever you want.

msleep |> 
  gg_point(
    x = bodywt, 
    y = brainwt,
    col = vore,
    col_labels = str_to_sentence,
    x_transform = "log10",
    y_transform = "log10",
  ) +
  light_mode_r() +
  guides(
    x = guide_axis_logticks(),
    y = guide_axis_logticks(),
  )

4. Reorder and/or reverse categorical variables

ggblanket requires unquoted variables only for x, y, col, facet, facet2 and alpha. You can often manipulate the data prior to plotting to achieve what you want (e.g. using tidyr::drop_na, forcats::fct_rev and/or forcats::fct_reorder).

p1 <- diamonds |>
  count(color) |>
  gg_col(
    x = n,
    y = color,
    width = 0.75,
    x_labels = \(x) x / 1000,
    x_title = "Count (thousands)", 
    subtitle = "\nDefault order"
  )

p2 <- diamonds |>
  count(color) |>
  mutate(across(color, \(x) x |>
                  forcats::fct_reorder(n) |>
                  forcats::fct_rev())) |>
  gg_col(
    x = n,
    y = color,
    width = 0.75,
    x_labels = \(x) x / 1000,
    x_title = "Count (thousands)", 
    subtitle = "\nRe-orderered"
  )

p1 + p2

5. Drop unused categorical variable values

ggblanket keeps unused factor levels in the plot. If users wish to drop unused levels they should likewise do it in the data prior to plotting using forcats::fct_drop.

p1 <- diamonds |> 
  count(color) |>
  filter(color %in% c("E", "G", "I")) |>
  gg_col(
    x = n,
    y = color,
    width = 0.75,
    x_labels = \(x) x / 1000,
    x_title = "Count (thousands)", 
    subtitle = "\nUnused levels kept",
  )

p2 <- diamonds |> 
  count(color) |>
  filter(color %in% c("E", "G", "I")) |>
  mutate(color = forcats::fct_drop(color)) |> 
  gg_col(
    x = n,
    y = color,
    width = 0.75,
    x_labels = \(x) x / 1000,
    x_title = "Count (thousands)", 
    subtitle = "\nUnused levels dropped",
  )

p1 + p2

6. Transform scales to `"log"` etc

Transform objects (e.g. scales::transform_log() or character strings of these can be used to transform scales - including combining these.

p1 <- pressure |>
  gg_point(
    x = temperature, 
    y = pressure, 
    x_labels = replace_seq,
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    subtitle = "\nDefault",
  )

p2 <- pressure |>
  gg_point(
    x = temperature, 
    y = pressure, 
    x_labels = replace_seq,
    y_transform = "reverse", 
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    subtitle = "\nReverse",
  )

p3 <- pressure |>
  gg_point(
    x = temperature, 
    y = pressure,
    x_labels = replace_seq,
    y_transform = "log10",
    subtitle = "\nLog10", 
  )

p4 <- pressure |>
  gg_point(
    x = temperature, 
    y = pressure, 
    x_labels = replace_seq,
    y_transform = c("log10", "reverse"),
    subtitle = "\nLog10 & Reverse",
  )

(p1 + p2) / (p3 + p4)

7. Change the `*_position` of positional axes

Positional axes can be changed using *_position.

Note that for x_position = "top", a caption must be added or modified to make this work nicely with a *_mode_* theme.

economics |>
  gg_line(
    x = date,
    y = unemploy,
    col = date,
    y_position = "right",
    x_position = "top",
    caption = "", 
    title = "Unemployment",
    subtitle = "1967\u20132015",
  )

8. Add contrasting dark or light text on polygons

Text on polygons can be coloured with a dark or light colour that is determined based on the underlying polygon colour using !!!aes_contrast_mode(). This method was developed by Teun van den Brand (@teunbrand).

penguins |>
  count(species, sex) |>
  gg_col(
    x = sex,
    y = n,
    col = species,
    label = n,
    position = position_dodge2(preserve = "single"),
    width = 0.75,
    x_labels = \(x) str_to_sentence(x),
  ) +
  geom_text(
    mapping = aes_contrast(),
    # mapping = aes(!!!aes_contrast()),
    position = position_dodge2(width = 0.75, preserve = "single"),
    vjust = 1.33,
    show.legend = FALSE,
  )

penguins |>
  count(species, sex) |>
  gg_col(
    position = position_dodge2(preserve = "single"),
    x = n,
    y = sex,
    col = species,
    label = n,
    width = 0.75,
    y_labels = \(x) str_to_sentence(x),
    mode = dark_mode_r(),
  ) +
  geom_text(
    mapping = aes_contrast("dark"),
    # mapping = aes(!!!aes_contrast("dark")),
    position = position_dodge2(width = 0.75, preserve = "single"),
    hjust = 1.25,
    show.legend = FALSE,
  )

9. Use opacity to emphasise/demphasise

Use opacity with mapping = aes(alpha = ...), col = ..., and col_palette to emphasise/demphasise parts of the visualisation.

p1 <- penguins |> 
  drop_na(sex) |> 
  mutate(across(sex, str_to_sentence)) |> 
  gg_density(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    x_breaks = scales::breaks_pretty(n = 3),
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    colour = scales::alpha(orange, 0.33),
    fill = orange,
    alpha = 0.1,
    subtitle = "\nOpacity fill 0.1 & outline 0.33"
  )

p2 <- penguins |> 
  drop_na(sex) |> 
  mutate(across(sex, str_to_sentence)) |> 
  gg_density(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    col = sex,
    x_breaks = scales::breaks_pretty(n = 3),
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    col_palette = c(orange, "#78909C"),
    subtitle = "\ncol variable"
  )

p3 <- penguins |> 
  drop_na(sex) |> 
  mutate(across(sex, str_to_sentence)) |> 
  gg_density(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    col = sex, 
    mapping = aes(alpha = sex),
    x_breaks = scales::breaks_pretty(n = 3),
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    col_palette = c(orange, "#78909C"),
    subtitle = "\ncol and alpha variable",
  ) +
  guides(colour = "none", fill = "none", alpha = "none") + 
  scale_alpha_manual(values = c(0.5, 0.1))

p4 <- penguins |> 
  drop_na(sex) |> 
  mutate(across(sex, str_to_sentence)) |> 
  gg_density(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    col = sex, 
    mapping = aes(alpha = sex),
    x_breaks = scales::breaks_pretty(n = 3),
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    col_palette = c(orange, scales::alpha("#78909C", 0.25)),
    subtitle = "\ncol and alpha variable & outline opacity",
  ) +
  scale_alpha_manual(values = c(0.5, 0.1))

(p1 + p2) / (p3 + p4)

10. Use `replace_seq` to keep every nth label

A replace_seq helper function is provided to replace a sequence of labels with "".

penguins |> 
  gg_point(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    y = body_mass_g,
    col = bill_length_mm,
    x_labels = replace_seq,
    y_labels = replace_seq,
    col_steps = TRUE,
    col_breaks = scales::breaks_pretty(5),
    col_labels = replace_seq,
  )

11. Understand `oob` & `clip`

By default, ggblanket keeps values outside of the limits (*_oob = scales::oob_keep) in calculating the geoms and scales to plot. It also does not clip anything outside the cartesian coordinate space by default (coord = ggplot2::coord_cartesian(clip = "off")).

ggplot2 by default drops values outside of the limits in calculating the geoms and scales to plot (scales::oob_censor), and clips anything outside the cartesian coordinate space (coord = ggplot2::coord_cartesian(clip = "on")).

This needs to be considered particularly when you are using x_limits or y_limits, and your stat is not "identity".

p1 <- economics |> 
  gg_smooth(
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy, 
    x_labels = \(x) stringr::str_sub(x, 3, 4),
    subtitle = "\nNo x_limits set", 
    se = TRUE) +
  geom_vline(xintercept = c(lubridate::ymd("1985-01-01", "1995-01-01"))) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.3)

p2 <- economics |> 
  filter(between(date, lubridate::ymd("1985-01-01"), lubridate::ymd("1995-01-01"))) |> 
  gg_smooth(
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy,
    se = TRUE,
    x_labels = \(x) stringr::str_sub(x, 3, 4),
    subtitle = "\nx data filtered") +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.3)

p1 + p2

p3 <- economics |> 
  gg_smooth(
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy, 
    se = TRUE,
    x_limits = c(lubridate::ymd("1985-01-01", "1995-01-01")),
    x_labels = \(x) stringr::str_sub(x, 3, 4),
    subtitle = "\nx_limits set (with default oob_keep)", 
  ) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.3)

p3 + plot_spacer()

p4 <- economics |> 
  gg_smooth(
    coord = coord_cartesian(clip = "on"), 
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy, 
    se = TRUE,
    x_limits = c(lubridate::ymd("1985-01-01", "1995-01-01")),
    x_labels = \(x) stringr::str_sub(x, 3, 4),
    subtitle = "\nx_limits set  (with default oob_keep)\n& cartesian space clipped") +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.3)

p5 <- economics |> 
  gg_smooth(
    x = date, 
    y = unemploy, 
    se = TRUE,
    x_limits = c(lubridate::ymd("1985-01-01", "1995-01-01")),
    x_labels = \(x) stringr::str_sub(x, 3, 4),
    x_oob = scales::oob_censor,
    subtitle = "\nx_limits set & oob_censor") +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.3)

p4 + p5

12. Use delayed evaluation

As the x, y, and col aesthetic arguments require a unquoted variable, you cannot apply a function to these. However, you can for aesthetics within the mapping argument. This can be used for delayed evaluation with the ggplot2::after_stat function.

penguins |>
  gg_histogram(
    x = flipper_length_mm,
    mapping = aes(y = after_stat(density)),
    facet = species,
  )

faithfuld |>
  gg_contour(
    x = waiting,
    y = eruptions,
    z = density,
    mapping = aes(colour = after_stat(level)),
    bins = 8,
  )

David Hodge

Overview

1. Change the stat of the layer

2. Change the position of the layer

3. Use + *_mode_* where axis-lines and gridlines are not as wanted