Ggplot text annotation outside plot. After you master th...
Ggplot text annotation outside plot. After you master the basics of R and ggplot2, you need to learn the little details. More on that later. g. Controlling the grid If nothing is given, patchwork will try to make a grid as square as possible, erring to the side of a horizontal grid if a square is not possible (it uses the same heuristic as facet_wrap() in ggplot2). The second takes a bit more effort, as the text in italic is only part of a sentence. Fixed horizontal positions for text annotations in annotate(geom = "text", x = 2. Jul 12, 2025 · ggplot(data = mtcars, aes(x = hp, y = mpg, col = disp))+ labs(title = "MTCars Data Plot") You’ll learn the basics of ggplot() along with some useful “recipes” to make the most important plots. Italicize the text “American Economic Review”. How to Add Text Outside of ggplot2 Plot Borders in R (Example Code) In this tutorial, I’ll illustrate how to annotate a character string outside of a ggplot2 plot in the R programming language. Perhaps asked a different way, how do you use annotation_custom() to draw segments outside the plot region between known data coords x0, y0 to x1, y1? I would be happy to receive Answers that simply had any old plot in the plot region but showed how to add line segments between known coordinates in the margin of the plot. ) This tutorial explains how to add text outside of a plot in R, including several examples. Most notably, direct labels can increase accessibility of a bar graph. I want to add two arrows with corresponding text to the outside of the Y axis in a ggplot2 plot, but the X axis is a categorical variable, and I have only found solutions (implemented below) when both variables are numerical. title = element_text(hjust = 0. Both of these can be controlled with plot_layout() Add texts to your base R graphs with text and mtext functions. As the first step in many plots, you would pass the data to the ggplot() function, which stores the data to be used later by other parts of the plotting system. As you can see, our text label has a black border. ggplot2 section Why annotating? geom_segment() draws a straight line between points (x, y) and (xend, yend). That’s where the function expression() and paste() come in handy. If you know how to make a ggplot2 chart, you are 10 seconds away to rendering an interactive version. By combining annotate(), coord_cartesian(clip = "off"), and margin adjustments, you can place custom text precisely where needed. I got a request how one can add percentage labels inside the bars and how to highlight specific bars with {ggplot2}. Further, each column and row in the grid will take up the same space. : xlab(), ylab An annotation is a text element that can be placed anywhere in the plot. This is the desired output. 5 + 4 * (0:4)) do not depend on data and other ggplot2 customizations, such as axis limits. But I think @hadley is right, this normally is outside the scope of the plotting routine. Fix overlapping labels in ggplot2—element_text(angle), vjust/hjust, per-facet angles, and quick recipes you can paste into your plot. Always ensure the axis and legend labels display the full variable name. However i want to add a text box sort outside my plot body. I'm looking for a way to add some text (a, b, c, I, II, etc. This is useful for adding small annotations (such as text labels) or if you have your data in vectors, and for some reason don't want to put them in a data frame. Any help would be appreciated! How to annotate text elements to a graph created by the ggplot2 package in R - 3 R programming examples - Extensive R syntax in RStudio Reduce the left and right borders. I can get the annotation that I want, but it's repeated for each facet. 5)) What I would like to do is add text outside of my plot so that it looks something like (I used Microsoft Paint after exporting to image): I want to add two captions for the footer. This post will guide you through the best practices using R and ggplot2. The text I want to add is to identify a horizontal line I am adding to the plot. It covers several topics such as different chart types, themes, design choices, plot combinations, and modification of axes, labels, and legends, custom fonts, interactive charts and many more. Each function returns a layer. annotate expands the size of the graph to keep the text inside. Customize the color, rotate and adjust the text or label the observations labs(title = "Plot") + theme(plot. How to annotate a plot in ggplot2 Once your chart is done, annotating it is a crucial step to make it more insightful. Geoms Use a geom function to represent data points, use the geom’s aesthetic properties to represent variables. Visit the interactive graphic section of the gallery for more. We use the following data as basement for this R programming tutorial: The previous output of the RStudio console shows that our example data contains two simple numeric variables. To write text outside plot using ggplot2, we can use annotate function and coord_cartesian function. How to create individual text elements for each facet in a ggplot2 graphic in R - R programming example code - Reproducible explanations - R programming tutorial 3 I want to create a plot that serves as a circular legend for a continuous variable. Adjust the plot margins so there is no title margin and then use geom_text to add the "titles" as text annotations on the plot. I am trying to add the 4 text descriptions (hopefully with the line blocks) to the graph. If I use annotate, the note won't go outside the plot. 2 I am trying to create the following plot and I want to add some additional illustration to the plot to point the reader to some important characteristics of it. As a kludge, you might use ggtitle with something like "Negative impact Positive impact" adding spaces between the headings to make things line up as you like. 2) Isn't there more systematic approach to the whole annotation process. How can I get this annotation to appear only once? Here is an attempt at what you want that uses annotate (instead of geom_text) along with coord_cartesian with clip = "off", similar to the answer provided by Maurits Evers here: Add text outside plot area. To make creating the plot easier I will use the bar_chart () function from my ggcharts package which outputs a ggplot that can be customized further using any ggplot2 function. I know it would be possible to use annotate or geom_text to add text inside each facet but I'd prefer not to do so because sometimes the text can overlap the data. Dec 4, 2025 · Annotating the y-axis outside a ggplot2 plot—such as adding "High" below a threshold value—enhances clarity and highlights critical insights. You then add on layers (like geom_point() or geom_histogram()), scales (like scale_colour_brewer()), faceting specifications (like facet_wrap()) and coordinate systems (like coord_flip()). But if that is the case then I can imagine using a loop, and perhaps printing ggplot plots, and then printing text. See the underlying drawing function grid::curveGrob() for the parameters that control the curve. Wilke) that helps in customizing the text present in ggplot2 plots. The output of the previous syntax is visualized in Figure 2 – A ggplot2 scatterplot with text annotation within the plotting area of the plot. 5. ggplot() allows you to make complex plots with just a few lines of code because it’s based on a rich underlying theory, the grammar of graphics. Example Following snippet creates a sample data frame − This tutorial explains how to add text to plots in ggplot2, including several examples. All the data needed to make the plot is typically be contained within the dataframe supplied to the ggplot() itself or can be supplied to respective geoms. Annotations differ from data labels, in that their position is decoupled from their meaning. You provide the data, tell 'ggplot2' how to map variables to aesthetics, what graphical primitives to use, and it takes care of the details. ggtext is an R package (by Claus O. 5)) What I would like to do is add text outside of my plot so that it looks something like (I used Microsoft Paint after exporting to image): This tutorial explains how to add text outside of a plot in R, including several examples. ) Install required packages Create some data Text annotations using geom_text and geom_label Change the text color and size by groups Add a text annotation at a particular coordinate annotation_custom : Add a static text annotation in the top-right, top-left, … ggrepel: Avoid overlapping of text labels Scatter plots with text annotations However, in most cases you start with ggplot(), supply a dataset and aesthetic mapping (with aes()). Adding little details like plot annotations help you communicate more clearly and "tell a story" with your plots. But it seems that ggplot will only take 1. However, text annotation can be tricky due to the way that R handles fonts. geom_curve() draws a curved line. How can I insert annotations outside the plot? I want to add a note on top of the first bar to signal that it continues e. The annotate function will define the text value and the coord_cartesian function will define the position of the text outside the plot area. Additionally, I need to add text outside the panel, specifically below the x-axis (outside the circle). Use the plot title and subtitle to explain the main findings. It's common to use the caption to provide information about the data source. We also need to install and load the ggplot2 package, if we want to use the functions that are included in the package: As next step, we can plot our data: As shown in F Nov 4, 2025 · Explore effective R ggplot2 methods to display text labels outside the plotting region when data limits are restricted, preventing label truncation. As of ggplot 3. I created a small data frame x <- 1:10 y1 <- x y2 <- x^2 y3 <- x + 1 df <- data. frame(x, y1, y2, y3) We want to plot y against x and remove the default space on both axis, so I did I want to add an annotation outside the plotting area in a faceted ggplot. The main difference is that, unlike base graphics, ggplot works with dataframes and not individual vectors. A great example of this is plot annotation. margin(). Here is an attempt at what you want that uses annotate (instead of geom_text) along with coord_cartesian with clip = "off", similar to the answer provided by Maurits Evers here: Add text outside plot area. These authors use as an example a text box in a plot to highlight a data point that is off-scale and has been “squeezed” to a position immediately outside the plotting area. tag can be used for adding identification tags to differentiate between multiple plots. The first can be done easily by changing the margin in plot. That’s where ggplot2 extensions come in very handy. ggplot2 section Why annotating? It seems to me there are two ways of doing this. 28 I am looking to add a small white text box, with custom text in the body of my ggplot plot. How to annotate text elements to a graph created by the ggplot2 package in R - 3 R programming examples - Extensive R syntax in RStudio An extensive tutorial containing a general introduction to ggplot2 as well as many examples how to modify a ggplot, step by step. 2 I've got almost the exact same problem as this question: Multi-row x-axis labels in ggplot line chart. Add a second title. However, since I am using coord_polar(), functions like annotate() and geom_text() do not behave as they normally would. It can be positioned with respect to relative coordinates in the plot or with respect to the actual data coordinates of the graph. This short tutorial shows you multiple ways how to do so. 0 you can set x = I(1) within annotate() in order to place labels on the right-most side of the plot Mar 3, 2021 · Ggplot2 is based on the grammar of graphics, the idea that you can build every graph from the same few components: a data set, a set of geoms—visual marks that represent data points, and a coordinate system. (I've tried padding a single title with spaces to simulate two titles but this breaks down with repeated plots because of kerning. The accepted answer works for me most of the way, but depending on the size of my plot, the annotations sometimes fall off my plot. Insets can be thought as larger, but still self-contained annotations. Is this possible with ggplot or should I look to some other package to do this? 1) how to annotate outside of the plot, underline both "Country" and "Average" without extending the x-axis. To add informative text such as a title, axis labels, or a caption to the plot's exterior, a data analyst utilizes the labs () function within the ggplot2 package. Check out the below example to understand how it works. up to 1000. Experiment with hjust, vjust, and styling to match your plot’s theme. A system for 'declaratively' creating graphics, based on "The Grammar of Graphics". Learn geoms, axes/scales, labels/annotations, themes, faceting, colors, and saving plots—each with working code and examples. Graphical Primitives a <- ggplot(economics, aes(date, unemploy)) b <- ggplot(seals, aes(x = long, y = lat)) Nov 24, 2025 · A curated ggplot2 hub for R. It could be the text outside the plot canvas or the text (annotation) within the plot canvas. ) outside of the strips of a faceted plot. While annotations inside the plot are commonly used to provide context and insights, annotating outside the plot offers additional It seems to me there are two ways of doing this. The ggplot2 package doesn’t have all the answers, but it does provide some tools to make your life a little easier. Would you like to learn more about the annotation of text elements? How to annotate a point in a plot? How to annotate bold and italic text to a ggplot2 graphic in R - 2 R programming examples - Reproducible syntax in RStudio - Thorough explanations Over 16 examples of Text and Annotations including changing color, size, log axes, and more in R. I've tried messing around with plot and legend margins relative to the y scale, but it hasn't worked as I'd Explanation The argument used in the labs () function to add text outside of the grid area of a plot in ggplot2 in R is the caption argument. Is there a workaround to add an annotation or geom_text to the bottom left and right hand corners. plotly: turn your ggplot interactive Another awesome feature of ggplot2 is its link with the plotly library. . There are many scenarios where we need to annotate outside the plot area or specific area as per client requirements. The post How to annotate a plot in ggplot2 appeared first on SHARP SIGHT LABS. Please let me know in the comments, if you have further comments or questions. Most plots will not benefit from adding text to every single observation on the plot, but labelling outliers and other important points is very useful. library(gg This tutorial has shown how to avoid overlap for geom_text labels in a ggplot2 plot in the R programming language. Good labels are critical for making your plots accessible to a wider audience. (Note Sample code library(ggplot2) ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, cyl, color = vs)) + geom_line() How if it is possible to add arbitrary text to the x axis like in this example Most plots will not benefit from adding text to every single observation on the plot, but labelling outliers and other important points is very useful. Just call the ggplotly() function, and you’re done. This function adds geoms to a plot, but unlike a typical geom function, the properties of the geoms are not mapped from variables of a data frame, but are instead passed in as vectors. I am trying to make a combo chart using ggplot2. I am unable to place it at the desired location I have used grid pack to create grob and Bar charts are likely the most common chart type out there and come in several varieties. labs(title = "Plot") + theme(plot. How to annotate text outside of ggplot2 plot? As shown in Figure 2, the previous code created a ggplot2 graph with multiple text elements outside the plotting area. Plotly Annotation Outside Plot Title: Enhancing Data Visualization with Plotly: Exploring Annotations Outside the Plot Introduction Plotly, a powerful data visualization library, offers a unique feature that allows users to add annotations outside the plot. However, in most cases you start with ggplot(), supply a dataset and aesthetic mapping (with aes()). z5rtk, oidfc, dn0oe6, cbxtxf, kdvni, w31lr, gbjz, z399s, qgbp, jnkkn,