Gradient colour scales

scale_*_gradient creates a two colour gradient (low-high), scale_*_gradient2 creates a diverging colour gradient (low-mid-high), scale_*_gradientn creats a n-colour gradient.

scale_colour_gradient(..., low = "#132B43", high = "#56B1F7",
  space = "Lab", na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar")

scale_fill_gradient(..., low = "#132B43", high = "#56B1F7", space = "Lab",
  na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar")

scale_colour_gradient2(..., low = muted("red"), mid = "white",
  high = muted("blue"), midpoint = 0, space = "Lab",
  na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar")

scale_fill_gradient2(..., low = muted("red"), mid = "white",
  high = muted("blue"), midpoint = 0, space = "Lab",
  na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar")

scale_colour_gradientn(..., colours, values = NULL, space = "Lab",
  na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar", colors)

scale_fill_gradientn(..., colours, values = NULL, space = "Lab",
  na.value = "grey50", guide = "colourbar", colors)

Arguments

...	Other arguments passed on to continuous_scale to control name, limits, breaks, labels and so forth.
low, high	Colours for low and high ends of the gradient.
space	colour space in which to calculate gradient. Must be "Lab" - other values are deprecated.
na.value	Colour to use for missing values
guide	Type of legend. Use "colourbar" for continuous colour bar, or "legend" for discrete colour legend.
mid	colour for mid point
midpoint	The midpoint (in data value) of the diverging scale. Defaults to 0.
colours, colors	Vector of colours to use for n-colour gradient.
values	if colours should not be evenly positioned along the gradient this vector gives the position (between 0 and 1) for each colour in the colours vector. See rescale for a convience function to map an arbitrary range to between 0 and 1.

Details

Default colours are generated with munsell and mnsl(c("2.5PB 2/4", "2.5PB 7/10")). Generally, for continuous colour scales you want to keep hue constant, but vary chroma and luminance. The munsell package makes this easy to do using the Munsell colour system.

See also

seq_gradient_pal for details on underlying palette

Other colour scales: scale_alpha, scale_colour_brewer, scale_colour_grey, scale_colour_hue

Examples

df <- data.frame(
  x = runif(100),
  y = runif(100),
  z1 = rnorm(100),
  z2 = abs(rnorm(100))
)

# Default colour scale colours from light blue to dark blue
ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = z2))

# For diverging colour scales use gradient2
ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = z1)) +
  scale_colour_gradient2()

# Use your own colour scale with gradientn
ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = z1)) +
  scale_colour_gradientn(colours = terrain.colors(10))

# Equivalent fill scales do the same job for the fill aesthetic
ggplot(faithfuld, aes(waiting, eruptions)) +
  geom_raster(aes(fill = density)) +
  scale_fill_gradientn(colours = terrain.colors(10))

# Adjust colour choices with low and high
ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(aes(colour = z2)) +
  scale_colour_gradient(low = "white", high = "black")
# Avoid red-green colour contrasts because ~10% of men have difficulty
# seeing them