Modify components of a theme

Use theme() to modify individual components of a theme, allowing you to control the appearance of all non-data components of the plot. theme() only affects a single plot: see theme_update if you want modify the active theme, to affect all subsequent plots.

theme(line, rect, text, title, aspect.ratio, axis.title, axis.title.x,
  axis.title.x.top, axis.title.y, axis.title.y.right, axis.text, axis.text.x,
  axis.text.x.top, axis.text.y, axis.text.y.right, axis.ticks, axis.ticks.x,
  axis.ticks.y, axis.ticks.length, axis.line, axis.line.x, axis.line.y,
  legend.background, legend.margin, legend.spacing, legend.spacing.x,
  legend.spacing.y, legend.key, legend.key.size, legend.key.height,
  legend.key.width, legend.text, legend.text.align, legend.title,
  legend.title.align, legend.position, legend.direction, legend.justification,
  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, plot.background, plot.title, plot.subtitle,
  plot.caption, plot.margin, strip.background, strip.placement, strip.text,
  strip.text.x, strip.text.y, strip.switch.pad.grid, strip.switch.pad.wrap, ...,
  complete = FALSE, validate = TRUE)

Arguments

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`)
aspect.ratio	aspect ratio of the panel
axis.title	label of axes (`element_text`; inherits from `text`)
axis.title.x	x axis label (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.title`)
axis.title.x.top	x axis label on top axis (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.title.x`)
axis.title.y	y axis label (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.title`)
axis.title.y.right	y axis label on right axis (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.title.y`)
axis.text	tick labels along axes (`element_text`; inherits from `text`)
axis.text.x	x axis tick labels (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.text`)
axis.text.x.top	x axis tick labels on top axis (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.text.x`)
axis.text.y	y axis tick labels (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.text`)
axis.text.y.right	y axis tick labels on right axis (`element_text`; inherits from `axis.text.y`)
axis.ticks	tick marks along axes (`element_line`; inherits from `line`)
axis.ticks.x	x axis tick marks (`element_line`; inherits from `axis.ticks`)
axis.ticks.y	y axis tick marks (`element_line`; inherits from `axis.ticks`)
axis.ticks.length	length of tick marks (`unit`)
axis.line	lines along axes (`element_line`; inherits from `line`)
axis.line.x	line along x axis (`element_line`; inherits from `axis.line`)
axis.line.y	line along y axis (`element_line`; inherits from `axis.line`)
legend.background	background of legend (`element_rect`; inherits from `rect`)
legend.margin	the margin around each legend (`margin`)
legend.spacing	the spacing between legends (`unit`)
legend.spacing.x	the horizontal spacing between legends (`unit`); inherits from `legend.spacing`
legend.spacing.y	the horizontal spacing between legends (`unit`); inherits from `legend.spacing`
legend.key	background underneath legend keys (`element_rect`; inherits from `rect`)
legend.key.size	size of legend keys (`unit`)
legend.key.height	key background height (`unit`; inherits from `legend.key.size`)
legend.key.width	key background width (`unit`; inherits from `legend.key.size`)
legend.text	legend item labels (`element_text`; inherits from `text`)
legend.text.align	alignment of legend labels (number from 0 (left) to 1 (right))
legend.title	title of legend (`element_text`; inherits from `title`)
legend.title.align	alignment of legend title (number from 0 (left) to 1 (right))
legend.position	the position of legends ("none", "left", "right", "bottom", "top", or two-element numeric vector)
legend.direction	layout of items in legends ("horizontal" or "vertical")
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.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", or "right")
legend.box.margin	margins around the full legend area, as specified using `margin`
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`)
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	spacing between facet panels (`unit`)
panel.spacing.x	horizontal spacing between facet panels (`unit`; inherits from `panel.spacing`)
panel.spacing.y	vertical spacing between facet panels (`unit`; inherits from `panel.spacing`)
panel.grid	grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `line`)
panel.grid.major	major grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid`)
panel.grid.minor	minor grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid`)
panel.grid.major.x	vertical major grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid.major`)
panel.grid.major.y	horizontal major grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid.major`)
panel.grid.minor.x	vertical minor grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid.minor`)
panel.grid.minor.y	horizontal minor grid lines (`element_line`; inherits from `panel.grid.minor`)
panel.ontop	option to place the panel (background, gridlines) over the data layers. Usually used with a transparent or blank `panel.background`. (`logical`)
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.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.margin	margin around entire plot (`unit` with the sizes of the top, right, bottom, and left margins)
strip.background	background of facet labels (`element_rect`; inherits from `rect`)
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	facet labels (`element_text`; inherits from `text`)
strip.text.x	facet labels along horizontal direction (`element_text`; inherits from `strip.text`)
strip.text.y	facet labels along vertical direction (`element_text`; inherits from `strip.text`)
strip.switch.pad.grid	space between strips and axes when strips are switched (`unit`)
strip.switch.pad.wrap	space between strips and axes when strips are switched (`unit`)
...	additional element specifications not part of base ggplot2. If supplied `validate` needs to be set to `FALSE`.
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 validate_element, `FALSE` to bypass checks.

Theme inheritance

Theme elements inherit properties from other theme elements. For example, axis.title.x 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.

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", fill = NA))
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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
p1 + theme(axis.line = element_line(size = 3, colour = "grey80"))
p1 + theme(axis.text = element_text(colour = "blue"))
p1 + theme(axis.ticks = element_line(size = 2))
p1 + theme(axis.ticks.length = unit(.25, "cm"))
p1 + theme(axis.title.y = element_text(size = rel(1.5), angle = 90))


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

# You can also control the display of the keys
# and the justifaction 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"))
p3 + theme(panel.spacing = unit(1, "lines"))

Arguments

Theme inheritance

See also

Examples

Contents