So the opts() has now been given the boot, and all the cool kids are using theme() to customise their ggplots. If you’re still on an old version of R then theme() will still work, but if you update (which you should) then it’ll stop working and you’ll have to edit all your code which uses theme ().

Here is my standard template giving you a style for simple, publication friendly ggplot plots.

# Load Packages
library (ggplot2) # Needed for plotting
library (grid) # Needed for customising plot area
library (scales) # Needed for ediring log tickmarks

# Select Font Size
size1 = 20 # Plot and Axis Titles
size2 = 17 # Legend Title
size3 = 15 # Axis Labels

ggplot (
     data = mtcars,
     aes (
     x= disp,
     y= drat
     )
     ) +

geom_point (
     aes(
     colour = mpg
     ),
     size = 5
     ) +

scale_y_log10 (
     limits = c(0.01, 10),
     name = "Axis Title Here",
     label = trans_format('log10',math_format(10^.x)) # Format = 10^x rather than 1e10x (also use label = comma)
     ) +

scale_x_log10 (
      limits = c(10, 1000),
     name = "Axis Title Here",
     label = trans_format('log10',math_format(10^.x)) # Format = 10^x rather than 1e10x (also use label = comma)
     ) +

annotation_logticks ( # Turn on minor ticks
     short = unit (0.2, "cm"), # Minor tick length
     mid = unit (0.2, "cm"), # ...
     long = unit (0.2, "cm"), # ...
     side = "lbrt") + # l = left, b = bottom etc

labs ( # New way of setting some attributes.
     colour = "MPG",
     title = "Plot Title"
     ) +

theme (
      plot.title = element_text (vjust = 3, size = 20), # plot title attrib.
      plot.margin = unit (c(3, 3, 3, 3), "lines"), # plot margins
      panel.border = element_rect (colour = "black", fill = F, size = 1), # axis colour = black
      panel.grid.major = element_blank (), # remove major grid
      panel.grid.minor = element_blank (), # remove minor grid
      panel.background = element_rect (fill = "white"), # background colour
      legend.background = element_rect (fill = "white"), # background colour
      legend.justification=c(0, 0), # lock point for legend
      legend.position = c(0, 0), # put the legend INSIDE the plot area
      legend.key = element_blank (), # switch off the rectangle around symbols in the legend
      legend.title = element_blank (), # switch off the legend title
      legend.text = element_text (size = 15), # sets the attributes of the legend text
      axis.title.x = element_text (vjust = -2, size = 20), # change the axis title
      axis.title.y = element_text (vjust = -0.1, angle = 90, size = 20), # change the axis title
      axis.text.x = element_text (size = 17, vjust = -0.25, colour = "black"),# change the axis label font attributes
      axis.text.y = element_text (size = 17, hjust = 1, colour = "black"), # change the axis label font attributes
      axis.ticks = element_line (colour = "black", size = 0.5), # sets the thickness and colour of axis ticks
      axis.ticks.length = unit(-0.25 , "cm"), # -ve length = inside ticks
      axis.ticks.margin = unit(0.5, "cm") # margin between the ticks and the text
      )