How to Change the Background Color of a Plot Made with Ggplot2

How do I change the background color of a plot made with ggplot2

To change the panel's background color, use the following code:

myplot + theme(panel.background = element_rect(fill = 'green', colour = 'red'))

To change the color of the plot (but not the color of the panel), you can do:

myplot + theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill = 'green', colour = 'red'))

See here for more theme details Quick reference sheet for legends, axes and themes.

How to customize background colors in faceted plots with ggplot

Use scale_fill_identity.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) +
  geom_rect(data = ann_text, aes(fill = hue),
            xmin = -Inf, xmax = Inf, ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf, alpha = 0.3) +
  geom_text(data = ann_text, mapping = aes(x = mpg, y = wt, label = lab)) +
  theme(panel.background = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y = element_line(color = "grey")) +
  facet_grid(. ~ cyl) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_fill_identity()

Or, you can wrap the aesthetic in I

ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) +
  geom_rect(data = ann_text, aes(fill = I(hue)),
            xmin = -Inf, xmax = Inf, ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf, alpha = 0.3) +
  geom_text(data = ann_text, mapping = aes(x = mpg, y = wt, label = lab)) +
  theme(panel.background = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y = element_line(color = "grey")) +
  facet_grid(. ~ cyl) +
  geom_point()

Panel background color by column in plot matrix, ggplot2

Actually I got the same colors as you. The reason is that your elevation is an ordered factor. Therefore ggplot2 by default makes use of the viridis color palette.

1. You can set the fill colors using scale_fill_manual and e.g. a named vector of colors.

2. There are two options for the grid lines. You can simply add the grid lines manually using geom_h/vline. Or you could set the fill for the plot and panel background to NA and make use of panel.ontop which will plot the panel and the grid lines on top of the plot.

library(ggplot2)

cols <- rev(scales::hue_pal()(5))
cols <- setNames(cols, levels(climate$elevation))
cols
#>    Alpine   Montane    Steppe    Valley     Coast 
#> "#E76BF3" "#00B0F6" "#00BF7D" "#A3A500" "#F8766D"

base <- ggplot(data = climate, aes(hour, temperature)) +
  geom_rect(aes(fill = elevation), xmin = -Inf, xmax = Inf, ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = cols) +
  geom_line(color = "steelblue", size = 1) +
  geom_point(color = "steelblue") +
  labs(
    title = "Elevation by Region & Time of Day",
    subtitle = "(Temperature)",
    y = "Mean Temperature", x = "Hour of Day"
  ) +
  facet_grid(region ~ elevation)

breaks_x <- seq(2.5, 10, 2.5)
breaks_y <- seq(10, 40, 10)

base +
  geom_vline(xintercept = breaks_x, color = "white", size = 0.5) +
  geom_hline(yintercept = breaks_y, color = "white", size = 0.5) +
  scale_x_continuous(breaks = breaks_x) +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks = breaks_y)

# Trying to add gridlines (does not work)
base + theme(
  panel.background = element_rect(fill = NA, colour = NA),
  plot.background = element_rect(fill = NA, colour = NA),
  panel.grid.major = element_line(
    size = 0.5, linetype = "solid",
    colour = "white"
  ),
  panel.ontop = TRUE,
  panel.grid.minor = element_blank()
)

Dynamically change background color of ggplot2

Not a perfect solution, but works for a given example.

For each value generate geom_rect with color defined by unemploy < 7777 and coordinates x as xmin, xmax (start = end).

thresholdUnemploy <- 7777
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(economics, aes(date, psavert)) + 
    geom_rect(aes(xmin = date, xmax = date,
                  ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf,
                  color = unemploy < thresholdUnemploy),
              size = 0.7,
              show.legend = FALSE) +
    geom_line()

Why this is not perfect: depending on the density of the x-axis points you might need to adjust size of geom_rect.

Why can't I change the background color of a ggplot legend box to white? (Other colors work fine)

Besides setting the fill for the legend.key you have to set the fill color of the key_glyphs to white or NA via e.g. guide_legend. The reason is that the grey fill color in the legend keys reflects the fill color of the standard error ribbons drawn by geom_smooth:

response <- rnorm(60, 50, 4)
year <- rep(c(1:10), 6)
treatment <- c(rep("A",30), rep("B", 30))
group <- c(rep(1, 20), rep(2, 20), rep(3, 20))
mydata <- data.frame(response, year, treatment, group)

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(mydata, aes(
  x = year,
  y = response,
  linetype = treatment,
  color = as.factor(group)
)) +  
  geom_smooth() +
  guides(color = guide_legend(override.aes = list(fill = NA)),
         linetype = guide_legend(override.aes = list(fill = NA))) +
  theme(legend.key = element_rect(fill = "white"))
#> `geom_smooth()` using method = 'loess' and formula 'y ~ x'

Change panel background color of specific ggplot facets

Perhaps you prefer a solution like this, no grob manipulation necessary:

ggplot(test) +
  geom_rect(
    aes(xmin = -Inf, xmax = Inf, ymin = -Inf, ymax = Inf), 
    data.frame(rows = 'C', cols = 'A'),
    fill = 'red', alpha = 0.5
  ) +
  geom_point(aes(x = x, y = y)) +
  facet_grid(vars(rows), vars(cols)) +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor.y = element_blank(),
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = NA, color = "grey60")
  )

A downside is that the color is drawn on top of the grid lines. Some transparency as used above is usually a good solution. Alternatively, you can use theme(panel.ontop = TRUE) to draw the grid lines on top, but then they will also be plotted on top of the data.

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