Modify components of a theme

Themes are a powerful way to customize the non-data components of your plots: i.e. titles, labels, fonts, background, gridlines, and legends. Themes can be used to give plots a consistent customized look. Modify a single plot's theme using theme(); see theme_update() if you want modify the active theme, to affect all subsequent plots. Use the themes available in complete themes if you would like to use a complete theme such as theme_bw(), theme_minimal(), and more. Theme elements are documented together according to inheritance, read more about theme inheritance below.

Usage

theme(
  ...,
  line,
  rect,
  text,
  title,
  point,
  polygon,
  geom,
  spacing,
  margins,
  aspect.ratio,
  axis.title,
  axis.title.x,
  axis.title.x.top,
  axis.title.x.bottom,
  axis.title.y,
  axis.title.y.left,
  axis.title.y.right,
  axis.text,
  axis.text.x,
  axis.text.x.top,
  axis.text.x.bottom,
  axis.text.y,
  axis.text.y.left,
  axis.text.y.right,
  axis.text.theta,
  axis.text.r,
  axis.ticks,
  axis.ticks.x,
  axis.ticks.x.top,
  axis.ticks.x.bottom,
  axis.ticks.y,
  axis.ticks.y.left,
  axis.ticks.y.right,
  axis.ticks.theta,
  axis.ticks.r,
  axis.minor.ticks.x.top,
  axis.minor.ticks.x.bottom,
  axis.minor.ticks.y.left,
  axis.minor.ticks.y.right,
  axis.minor.ticks.theta,
  axis.minor.ticks.r,
  axis.ticks.length,
  axis.ticks.length.x,
  axis.ticks.length.x.top,
  axis.ticks.length.x.bottom,
  axis.ticks.length.y,
  axis.ticks.length.y.left,
  axis.ticks.length.y.right,
  axis.ticks.length.theta,
  axis.ticks.length.r,
  axis.minor.ticks.length,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.x,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.x.top,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.x.bottom,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.y,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.y.left,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.y.right,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.theta,
  axis.minor.ticks.length.r,
  axis.line,
  axis.line.x,
  axis.line.x.top,
  axis.line.x.bottom,
  axis.line.y,
  axis.line.y.left,
  axis.line.y.right,
  axis.line.theta,
  axis.line.r,
  legend.background,
  legend.margin,
  legend.spacing,
  legend.spacing.x,
  legend.spacing.y,
  legend.key,
  legend.key.size,
  legend.key.height,
  legend.key.width,
  legend.key.spacing,
  legend.key.spacing.x,
  legend.key.spacing.y,
  legend.key.justification,
  legend.frame,
  legend.ticks,
  legend.ticks.length,
  legend.axis.line,
  legend.text,
  legend.text.position,
  legend.title,
  legend.title.position,
  legend.position,
  legend.position.inside,
  legend.direction,
  legend.byrow,
  legend.justification,
  legend.justification.top,
  legend.justification.bottom,
  legend.justification.left,
  legend.justification.right,
  legend.justification.inside,
  legend.location,
  legend.box,
  legend.box.just,
  legend.box.margin,
  legend.box.background,
  legend.box.spacing,
  panel.background,
  panel.border,
  panel.spacing,
  panel.spacing.x,
  panel.spacing.y,
  panel.grid,
  panel.grid.major,
  panel.grid.minor,
  panel.grid.major.x,
  panel.grid.major.y,
  panel.grid.minor.x,
  panel.grid.minor.y,
  panel.ontop,
  panel.widths,
  panel.heights,
  plot.background,
  plot.title,
  plot.title.position,
  plot.subtitle,
  plot.caption,
  plot.caption.position,
  plot.tag,
  plot.tag.position,
  plot.tag.location,
  plot.margin,
  strip.background,
  strip.background.x,
  strip.background.y,
  strip.clip,
  strip.placement,
  strip.text,
  strip.text.x,
  strip.text.x.bottom,
  strip.text.x.top,
  strip.text.y,
  strip.text.y.left,
  strip.text.y.right,
  strip.switch.pad.grid,
  strip.switch.pad.wrap,
  complete = FALSE,
  validate = TRUE
)

Arguments

...: additional element specifications not part of base ggplot2. In general, these should also be defined in the element tree argument. Splicing a list is also supported.
line: all line elements (element_line())
rect: all rectangular elements (element_rect())
text: all text elements (element_text())
title: all title elements: plot, axes, legends (element_text(); inherits from text)
point: all point elements (element_point())
polygon: all polygon elements (element_polygon())
geom: defaults for geoms (element_geom())
spacing: all spacings (unit())
margins: all margins (margin())
aspect.ratio: aspect ratio of the panel
axis.title, axis.title.x, axis.title.y, axis.title.x.top, axis.title.x.bottom, axis.title.y.left, axis.title.y.right: labels of axes (element_text()). Specify all axes' labels (axis.title), labels by plane (using axis.title.x or axis.title.y), or individually for each axis (using axis.title.x.bottom, axis.title.x.top, axis.title.y.left, axis.title.y.right). axis.title.*.* inherits from axis.title.* which inherits from axis.title, which in turn inherits from text
axis.text, axis.text.x, axis.text.y, axis.text.x.top, axis.text.x.bottom, axis.text.y.left, axis.text.y.right, axis.text.theta, axis.text.r: tick labels along axes (element_text()). Specify all axis tick labels (axis.text), tick labels by plane (using axis.text.x or axis.text.y), or individually for each axis (using axis.text.x.bottom, axis.text.x.top, axis.text.y.left, axis.text.y.right). axis.text.*.* inherits from axis.text.* which inherits from axis.text, which in turn inherits from text
axis.ticks, axis.ticks.x, axis.ticks.x.top, axis.ticks.x.bottom, axis.ticks.y, axis.ticks.y.left, axis.ticks.y.right, axis.ticks.theta, axis.ticks.r: tick marks along axes (element_line()). Specify all tick marks (axis.ticks), ticks by plane (using axis.ticks.x or axis.ticks.y), or individually for each axis (using axis.ticks.x.bottom, axis.ticks.x.top, axis.ticks.y.left, axis.ticks.y.right). axis.ticks.*.* inherits from axis.ticks.* which inherits from axis.ticks, which in turn inherits from line
axis.minor.ticks.x.top, axis.minor.ticks.x.bottom, axis.minor.ticks.y.left, axis.minor.ticks.y.right, axis.minor.ticks.theta, axis.minor.ticks.r,: minor tick marks along axes (element_line()). axis.minor.ticks.*.* inherit from the corresponding major ticks axis.ticks.*.*.
axis.ticks.length, axis.ticks.length.x, axis.ticks.length.x.top, axis.ticks.length.x.bottom, axis.ticks.length.y, axis.ticks.length.y.left, axis.ticks.length.y.right, axis.ticks.length.theta, axis.ticks.length.r: length of tick marks (unit). axis.ticks.length inherits from spacing.
axis.minor.ticks.length, axis.minor.ticks.length.x, axis.minor.ticks.length.x.top, axis.minor.ticks.length.x.bottom, axis.minor.ticks.length.y, axis.minor.ticks.length.y.left, axis.minor.ticks.length.y.right, axis.minor.ticks.length.theta, axis.minor.ticks.length.r: length of minor tick marks (unit), or relative to axis.ticks.length when provided with rel().
axis.line, axis.line.x, axis.line.x.top, axis.line.x.bottom, axis.line.y, axis.line.y.left, axis.line.y.right, axis.line.theta, axis.line.r: lines along axes (element_line()). Specify lines along all axes (axis.line), lines for each plane (using axis.line.x or axis.line.y), or individually for each axis (using axis.line.x.bottom, axis.line.x.top, axis.line.y.left, axis.line.y.right). axis.line.*.* inherits from axis.line.* which inherits from axis.line, which in turn inherits from line
legend.background: background of legend (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
legend.margin: the margin around each legend (margin()); inherits from margins.
legend.spacing, legend.spacing.x, legend.spacing.y: the spacing between legends (unit). legend.spacing.x & legend.spacing.y inherit from legend.spacing or can be specified separately. legend.spacing inherits from spacing.
legend.key: background underneath legend keys (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
legend.key.size, legend.key.height, legend.key.width: size of legend keys (unit); key background height & width inherit from legend.key.size or can be specified separately. In turn legend.key.size inherits from spacing.
legend.key.spacing, legend.key.spacing.x, legend.key.spacing.y: spacing between legend keys given as a unit. Spacing in the horizontal (x) and vertical (y) direction inherit from legend.key.spacing or can be specified separately. legend.key.spacing inherits from spacing.
legend.key.justification: Justification for positioning legend keys when more space is available than needed for display. The default, NULL, stretches keys into the available space. Can be a location like "center" or "top", or a two-element numeric vector.
legend.frame: frame drawn around the bar (element_rect()).
legend.ticks: tick marks shown along bars or axes (element_line())
legend.ticks.length: length of tick marks in legend (unit()); inherits from legend.key.size.
legend.axis.line: lines along axes in legends (element_line())
legend.text: legend item labels (element_text(); inherits from text)
legend.text.position: placement of legend text relative to legend keys or bars ("top", "right", "bottom" or "left"). The legend text placement might be incompatible with the legend's direction for some guides.
legend.title: title of legend (element_text(); inherits from title)
legend.title.position: placement of legend title relative to the main legend ("top", "right", "bottom" or "left").
legend.position: the default position of legends ("none", "left", "right", "bottom", "top", "inside")
legend.position.inside: A numeric vector of length two setting the placement of legends that have the "inside" position.
legend.direction: layout of items in legends ("horizontal" or "vertical")
legend.byrow: whether the legend-matrix is filled by columns (FALSE, the default) or by rows (TRUE).
legend.justification: anchor point for positioning legend inside plot ("center" or two-element numeric vector) or the justification according to the plot area when positioned outside the plot
legend.justification.top, legend.justification.bottom, legend.justification.left, legend.justification.right, legend.justification.inside: Same as legend.justification but specified per legend.position option.
legend.location: Relative placement of legends outside the plot as a string. Can be "panel" (default) to align legends to the panels or "plot" to align legends to the plot as a whole.
legend.box: arrangement of multiple legends ("horizontal" or "vertical")
legend.box.just: justification of each legend within the overall bounding box, when there are multiple legends ("top", "bottom", "left", "right", "center" or "centre")
legend.box.margin: margins around the full legend area, as specified using margin(); inherits from margins.
legend.box.background: background of legend area (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
legend.box.spacing: The spacing between the plotting area and the legend box (unit); inherits from spacing.
panel.background: background of plotting area, drawn underneath plot (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
panel.border: border around plotting area, drawn on top of plot so that it covers tick marks and grid lines. This should be used with fill = NA (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
panel.spacing, panel.spacing.x, panel.spacing.y: spacing between facet panels (unit). panel.spacing.x & panel.spacing.y inherit from panel.spacing or can be specified separately. panel.spacing inherits from spacing.
panel.grid, panel.grid.major, panel.grid.minor, panel.grid.major.x, panel.grid.major.y, panel.grid.minor.x, panel.grid.minor.y: grid lines (element_line()). Specify major grid lines, or minor grid lines separately (using panel.grid.major or panel.grid.minor) or individually for each axis (using panel.grid.major.x, panel.grid.minor.x, panel.grid.major.y, panel.grid.minor.y). Y axis grid lines are horizontal and x axis grid lines are vertical. panel.grid.*.* inherits from panel.grid.* which inherits from panel.grid, which in turn inherits from line
panel.ontop: option to place the panel (background, gridlines) over the data layers (logical). Usually used with a transparent or blank panel.background.
panel.widths, panel.heights: Sizes for panels (units). Can be a single unit to set the total size for the panel area, or a unit vector to set the size of individual panels.
plot.background: background of the entire plot (element_rect(); inherits from rect)
plot.title: plot title (text appearance) (element_text(); inherits from title) left-aligned by default
plot.title.position, plot.caption.position: Alignment of the plot title/subtitle and caption. The setting for plot.title.position applies to both the title and the subtitle. A value of "panel" (the default) means that titles and/or caption are aligned to the plot panels. A value of "plot" means that titles and/or caption are aligned to the entire plot (minus any space for margins and plot tag).
plot.subtitle: plot subtitle (text appearance) (element_text(); inherits from title) left-aligned by default
plot.caption: caption below the plot (text appearance) (element_text(); inherits from title) right-aligned by default
plot.tag: upper-left label to identify a plot (text appearance) (element_text(); inherits from title) left-aligned by default
plot.tag.position: The position of the tag as a string ("topleft", "top", "topright", "left", "right", "bottomleft", "bottom", "bottomright") or a coordinate. If a coordinate, can be a numeric vector of length 2 to set the x,y-coordinate relative to the whole plot. The coordinate option is unavailable for plot.tag.location = "margin".
plot.tag.location: The placement of the tag as a string, one of "panel", "plot" or "margin". Respectively, these will place the tag inside the panel space, anywhere in the plot as a whole, or in the margin around the panel space.
plot.margin: margin around entire plot (unit with the sizes of the top, right, bottom, and left margins); inherits from margin.
strip.background, strip.background.x, strip.background.y: background of facet labels (element_rect(); inherits from rect). Horizontal facet background (strip.background.x) & vertical facet background (strip.background.y) inherit from strip.background or can be specified separately
strip.clip: should strip background edges and strip labels be clipped to the extend of the strip background? Options are "on" to clip, "off" to disable clipping or "inherit" (default) to take the clipping setting from the parent viewport.
strip.placement: placement of strip with respect to axes, either "inside" or "outside". Only important when axes and strips are on the same side of the plot.
strip.text, strip.text.x, strip.text.y, strip.text.x.top, strip.text.x.bottom, strip.text.y.left, strip.text.y.right: facet labels (element_text(); inherits from text). Horizontal facet labels (strip.text.x) & vertical facet labels (strip.text.y) inherit from strip.text or can be specified separately. Facet strips have dedicated position-dependent theme elements (strip.text.x.top, strip.text.x.bottom, strip.text.y.left, strip.text.y.right) that inherit from strip.text.x and strip.text.y, respectively. As a consequence, some theme stylings need to be applied to the position-dependent elements rather than to the parent elements
strip.switch.pad.grid, strip.switch.pad.wrap: space between strips and axes when strips are switched (unit); inherits from spacing.
complete: set this to TRUE if this is a complete theme, such as the one returned by theme_grey(). Complete themes behave differently when added to a ggplot object. Also, when setting complete = TRUE all elements will be set to inherit from blank elements.
validate: TRUE to run check_element(), FALSE to bypass checks.

Theme inheritance

Theme elements inherit properties from other theme elements hierarchically. For example, axis.title.x.bottom inherits from axis.title.x which inherits from axis.title, which in turn inherits from text. All text elements inherit directly or indirectly from text; all lines inherit from line, and all rectangular objects inherit from rect. This means that you can modify the appearance of multiple elements by setting a single high-level component.

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

Examples

p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(title = "Fuel economy declines as weight increases")
p1


# Plot ---------------------------------------------------------------------
p1 + theme(plot.title = element_text(size = rel(2)))

p1 + theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill = "green"))


# Panels --------------------------------------------------------------------

p1 + theme(panel.background = element_rect(fill = "white", colour = "grey50"))

p1 + theme(panel.border = element_rect(linetype = "dashed"))

p1 + theme(panel.grid.major = element_line(colour = "black"))

p1 + theme(
  panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
  panel.grid.minor.y = element_blank()
)


# Put gridlines on top of data
p1 + theme(
  panel.background = element_rect(fill = NA),
  panel.grid.major = element_line(colour = "grey50"),
  panel.ontop = TRUE
)


# Axes ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Change styles of axes texts and lines
p1 + theme(axis.line = element_line(linewidth = 3, colour = "grey80"))

p1 + theme(axis.text = element_text(colour = "blue"))

p1 + theme(axis.ticks = element_line(linewidth = 2))


# Change the appearance of the y-axis title
p1 + theme(axis.title.y = element_text(size = rel(1.5), angle = 90))


# Make ticks point outwards on y-axis and inwards on x-axis
p1 + theme(
  axis.ticks.length.y = unit(.25, "cm"),
  axis.ticks.length.x = unit(-.25, "cm"),
  axis.text.x = element_text(margin = margin(t = .3, unit = "cm"))
)


# \donttest{
# Legend --------------------------------------------------------------------
p2 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = factor(cyl), shape = factor(vs))) +
  labs(
    x = "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    y = "Fuel economy (mpg)",
    colour = "Cylinders",
    shape = "Transmission"
   )
p2


# Position
p2 + theme(legend.position = "none")

p2 + theme(legend.justification = "top")

p2 + theme(legend.position = "bottom")


# Or place legends inside the plot using relative coordinates between 0 and 1
# legend.justification sets the corner that the position refers to
p2 + theme(
  legend.position = "inside",
  legend.position.inside = c(.95, .95),
  legend.justification = c("right", "top"),
  legend.box.just = "right",
  legend.margin = margin_auto(6)
)


# The legend.box properties work similarly for the space around
# all the legends
p2 + theme(
  legend.box.background = element_rect(),
  legend.box.margin = margin_auto(6)
)


# You can also control the display of the keys
# and the justification related to the plot area can be set
p2 + theme(legend.key = element_rect(fill = "white", colour = "black"))

p2 + theme(legend.text = element_text(size = 8, colour = "red"))

p2 + theme(legend.title = element_text(face = "bold"))


# Strips --------------------------------------------------------------------

p3 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point() +
  facet_wrap(~ cyl)
p3


p3 + theme(strip.background = element_rect(colour = "black", fill = "white"))

p3 + theme(strip.text.x = element_text(colour = "white", face = "bold"))

# More direct strip.text.x here for top
# as in the facet_wrap the default strip.position is "top"
p3 + theme(strip.text.x.top = element_text(colour = "white", face = "bold"))

p3 + theme(panel.spacing = unit(1, "lines"))

# }

Usage

Arguments

Theme inheritance

See also

Examples