Plot Only Text in R (2 Examples)

In this tutorial, I’ll show how to create a graphic that contains only text in the R programming language.

The article contains the following information:

Here’s how to do it.

Example 1: Show Only Text in Base R Plot

This section illustrates how to add text to an empty plot using the basic features of the R programming language.

In the first step, we have to remove all white space around our plot using the par function and the mar argument:

par(mar = c(0, 0, 0, 0))        # Remove white space around plot

Next, we can use a combination of the plot and text functions to create a plot containing only some text:

plot(x = 0:1,                   # Create empty plot
     y = 0:1,
     ann = F,
     bty = "n",
     type = "n",
     xaxt = "n",
     yaxt = "n")
text(x = 0.5,                   # Add text to empty plot
     y = 0.5,
     "This is my first line of text!\nAnother line of text.\n(Created by Base R)", 
     cex = 1.8)

As shown in Figure 1, we have created a graph that consists only of text with the previous R programming code.

Example 2: Show Only Text in ggplot2 Plot

As you have seen in Example 1, we can draw a plot with text only by using the basic installation of the R programming language.

However, an even easier solution is provided by the ggplot2 add-on package.

First, we have to install and load the ggplot2 package:

install.packages("ggplot2")     # Install ggplot2 package
library("ggplot2")              # Load ggplot2 package

Next, we can use the ggplot and annotate functions to draw a plot with text only:

ggplot() +                      # Draw ggplot2 plot with text only
  annotate("text",
           x = 1,
           y = 1,
           size = 8,
           label = "This is my first line of text!\nAnother line of text.\n(Created by ggplot2)") + 
  theme_void()

As shown in Figure 2, the previous R programming syntax has plotted a ggplot2 plot with text only.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

Do you need more explanations on the R programming codes of this page? Then you could have a look at the following video of my YouTube channel. In the video, I’m explaining the R programming code of this tutorial.

Furthermore, you may read the other R programming posts on https://www.statisticsglobe.com/. You can find a selection of articles about topics such as ggplot2, text elements, and graphics in R below:

• Add Text to ggplot2 Plot in R
• Add Text to Plot Using text() Function in Base R
• Add Individual Text to Each Facet of ggplot2 Plot
• R Graphics Gallery
• All R Programming Examples

To summarize: You have learned in this tutorial how to display only text in a plot in R. If you have further questions, tell me about it in the comments. Furthermore, please subscribe to my email newsletter in order to get updates on new articles.