Avoid Overlap of Text Labels in ggplot2 Plot in R (Example)

This article illustrates how to remove overlap for geom_text labels in a ggplot2 graphic in the R programming language.

Table of contents:

You’re here for the answer, so let’s get straight to the example.

Example Data, Add-On Packages & Default Plot

Have a look at the following example data:

set.seed(77358647)                   # Set seed
data <- data.frame(x = rnorm(30),    # Create example data
                   y = rnorm(30),
                   label = paste0("L", 1:30))
head(data)                           # Print head of example data

Table 1 shows the head of the example data: Furthermore, it gets visible that our data consists of three columns. The variables x and y have the numeric class and the variable label is a character.

We also need to install and load the ggplot2 package, in order to apply the functions that are contained in the package:

install.packages("ggplot2")          # Install & load ggplot2
library("ggplot2")

Now, we can draw our data as follows.

ggplot(data) +                       # Draw ggplot2 plot with labels
  geom_text(aes(x, y, label = label))

After running the previous R programming syntax the ggplot2 plot with labels shown in Figure 1 has been drawn.

As you can see, some of the text labels created with the geom_text function are overlapping.

Next, I’ll show how to change that!

Example: Avoid Overlap of ggplot2 Text Labels Using geom_text_repel() Function of ggrepel Package

In this example, I’ll demonstrate how to remove the overlap from text labels in a ggplot2 plot.

We first need to install and load the ggrepel package, to be able to use the functions that are included in the package:

install.packages("ggrepel")          # Install ggrepel package
library("ggrepel")                   # Load ggrepel package

In the next step, we can use the geom_text_repel function instead of the geom_text function to avoid any text label overlap:

ggplot(data) +                       # Draw labels without overlap
  geom_text_repel(aes(x, y, label = label))

As shown in Figure 2, we have created a new ggplot2 plot where none of the text labels are overlapping.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

Do you need further info on the R programming codes of this tutorial? Then I can recommend having a look at the following video instruction on my YouTube channel. In the video, I’m showing the topics of this article:

Furthermore, you might have a look at the other RStudio tutorials on my website. You can find a selection of articles that are related to the removal of overlap for geom_text labels in a ggplot2 graphic below.

• Add Bold & Italic Text to ggplot2 Plot
• Change Labels of ggplot2 Facet Plot
• Wrap Long Axis Labels of ggplot2 Plot into Multiple Lines
• Adjust Space Between ggplot2 Axis Labels and Plot Area
• Graphics Overview in R
• All R Programming Examples

This tutorial has shown how to avoid overlap for geom_text labels in a ggplot2 plot in the R programming language. Please let me know in the comments, if you have further comments or questions. In addition, please subscribe to my email newsletter for updates on the newest tutorials.