Text Styling With ggplot2

Albert Rapp

22 hours ago

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In today’s blog post, we are figuring out how to fully control the text styling of the texts that we put into our ggplots. This means that we will learn

how to dynamically adjust the text color depending on the background color, and
how to use the extensive styling capabilities that the brand-new {marquee} package gives you.

Here, you will find all of the code chunks split into sections. For detailed explantions, check out the corresponding YT video:

< section id="customize-the-text-color-based-on-the-background-color" class="level2">

Customize the text color based on the background color

library(tidyverse)
dat <- tibble(value = 1:5) |> 
  mutate(
    text_color = if_else(
      value <= 3,
      'black',
      'white'
    )
  ) 

dat |> 
  ggplot(aes(x = value, y = 1)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(fill = value),
    width = 0.5, 
    height = 0.5,
    col = 'black'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(label = value),
    color = dat$text_color,
    size = 8,
    face = 'bold',
    family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  coord_fixed() +
  scale_fill_gradient(low = 'white', high = 'firebrick4') +
  theme_void() +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

< section id="dynamic-text-color-with-categorical-labels" class="level2">

Dynamic text color with categorical labels

dat <- tibble(x = 1:5, letter = letters[1:5]) |> 
  mutate(
    text_color = if_else(
      letter %in% c('a', 'd'),
      'white',
      'black'
    )
  )

dat |> 
  ggplot(aes(x = x, y = 1)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(fill = letter),
    width = 0.5, 
    height = 0.5,
    col = 'black'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(label = letter),
    size = 8,
    color = dat$text_color,
    face = 'bold',
    family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_brewer(palette = 'Set1') +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

< section id="use-geom_marquee-instead-of-geom_text" class="level2">

Use `geom_marquee()` instead of `geom_text()`

geom_marquee() is a drop-in replacement for geom_text() and geom_label(). Important caveat: In order for everything to render properly, you might have to update your ragg package

library(marquee)

md_text <- 'This is a **bold word** written in _Markdown_.'

tibble(x = 1, y = 1, label = md_text) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_marquee(
    aes(label = label),
    size = 13,
    family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  theme_void()

< section id="add-more-styles-using-the-style-aesthetic" class="level2">

Add more styles using the `style` aesthetic

tibble(x = 1, y = 1, label = md_text) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_marquee(
    aes(label = label),
    size = 13,
    family = 'Source Sans Pro',
    style = classic_style(
      weight = 'thin'
    )
  ) +
  theme_void()

< section id="modify-paragraph-styles" class="level2">

Modify paragraph styles

my_own_style <- classic_style(
  weight = 'thin'
) |> 
  modify_style(
    'p', 
    background = 'dodgerblue4',
    padding = trbl(10),
    color = 'white',
    border_radius = 4
  )

tibble(x = 1, y = 1, label = md_text) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_marquee(
    aes(label = label),
    size = 13,
    family = 'Source Sans Pro',
    style = my_own_style
  ) +
  theme_void()

< section id="modify-code-styles" class="level2">

Modify Code styles

md_text <- 'Now let\'s try some `code` stuff and a [url]().'

tibble(x = 1, y = 1, label = md_text) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_marquee(
    aes(label = label),
    size = 13,
    family = 'Source Sans Pro',
    style = classic_style() |> 
      modify_style(
        'code',
        weight = 'bold',
        background = colorspace::lighten('dodgerblue4', 0.9),
        border_radius = 4,
        color = 'dodgerblue4',
        family = 'IBM Plex Mono',
        padding = trbl(0, 4, 0, 4)
      )
  ) +
  theme_void()

< section id="use-long-texts-as-part-of-plot-titles" class="level2">

Use long texts as part of plot titles

md_text <- '# This is a headline

And the rest is just a regular text, i.e. paragraph, that will contain long and lengthy but also **SUPER** important information. Isn\'t that just great?'


headline_style <- classic_style() |> 
  remove_style('h1') |> 
  modify_style(
    'h1',
    weight = 'bold',
    size = 32,
    margin = trbl(b = 4),
    family = 'Merriweather'
  ) |> 
  modify_style(
    'p',
    lineheight = 1
  )

tibble(x = 1, y = 1) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(size = 10) +
  labs(title = md_text) +
  theme_minimal(
    base_size = 18, 
    base_family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title = element_marquee(
      width = 1,
      style = headline_style
    )
  )

< section id="create-text-boxes-using-the-width-argument" class="level2">

Create text boxes using the `width` argument

text_box_style <- headline_style |> 
      modify_style(
        'p', 
        padding = trbl(l = 4),
        size = 16
      ) |> 
      modify_style(
        'body',
        border_radius = 4,
        border = 'dodgerblue4',
        border_size = trbl(2),
        padding = trbl(5)
      ) |> 
      modify_style(
        'h1',
        border_size = trbl(0)
      ) 

tibble(x = 1, y = 1) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(size = 10) +
  annotate(
    'marquee',
    x = 1.2,
    y = 1.5,
    label = md_text,
    width = 0.4,
    hjust = 0,
    fill = colorspace::lighten('dodgerblue1', 0.7),
    style = text_box_style
  ) +
  labs(title = md_text) +
  theme_minimal(
    base_size = 18, 
    base_family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title = element_marquee(
      width = 1,
      style = headline_style
    )
  ) +
  coord_cartesian(
    xlim = c(0, 2),
    ylim = c(0, 2)
  )

< section id="colorize-single-words-in-your-title" class="level2">

Colorize single words in your title

md_text <- '# This is a headline

And the rest is just a regular text, i.e. paragraph, that will contain long and lengthy but also {.red **SUPER** important information}. Isn\'t that just great?'

tibble(x = 1, y = 1) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(size = 10) +
  annotate(
    'marquee',
    x = 1.2,
    y = 1.5,
    label = md_text,
    width = 0.4,
    hjust = 0,
    fill = colorspace::lighten('dodgerblue1', 0.7),
    style = text_box_style
  ) +
  labs(title = md_text) +
  theme_minimal(
    base_size = 18, 
    base_family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title = element_marquee(
      width = 1,
      style = headline_style
    )
  ) +
  coord_cartesian(
    xlim = c(0, 2),
    ylim = c(0, 2)
  )

< section id="define-your-own-inline-style" class="level2">

Define your own inline style

md_text <- '# This is a headline

And the rest is just a regular text, i.e. paragraph, that will contain long and lengthy but also {.my_style **SUPER** important information}. Isn\'t that just great?'

tibble(x = 1, y = 1) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point(size = 10) +
  annotate(
    'marquee',
    x = 1.2,
    y = 1.5,
    label = md_text,
    width = 0.4,
    hjust = 0,
    fill = colorspace::lighten('dodgerblue1', 0.7),
    style = text_box_style |> 
      modify_style(
        'my_style',
        color = 'seagreen'
      )
  ) +
  labs(title = md_text) +
  theme_minimal(
    base_size = 18, 
    base_family = 'Source Sans Pro'
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title = element_marquee(
      width = 1,
      style = headline_style |> 
        modify_style(
          'my_style',
          color = 'seagreen'
        )
    )
  ) +
  coord_cartesian(
    xlim = c(0, 2),
    ylim = c(0, 2)
  )

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