theme_minimal ggplot2 Theme in R (6 Examples)
In this post you’ll learn how to switch the ggplot2 theme to the theme_minimal in R programming.
Table of contents:
So now the part you have been waiting for – the exemplifying R syntax.
Example Data & Packages
I use the following data as basement for this R tutorial:
set.seed(1171665) # Set random seed data <- data.frame(x = rnorm(120), # Create example data frame y = rnorm(120), group = LETTERS[1:4]) head(data) # Print head of example data frame
Table 1 shows the first six rows of the exemplifying data – it is also visualized that our data contains three columns.
In order to use the commands and functions of the ggplot2 package, we also have to install and load ggplot2:
install.packages("ggplot2") # Install & load ggplot2 package library("ggplot2")
Let’s draw our data using a minimalistic style!
Example 1: Draw ggplot2 Scatterplot Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(data, # theme_minimal scatterplot aes(x = x, y = y, col = group)) + geom_point() + theme_minimal()
Example 2: Draw ggplot2 Density Plot Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(data, # theme_minimal density plot aes(x = x, fill = group)) + geom_density(alpha = 0.5) + theme_minimal()
Example 3: Draw ggplot2 Histogram Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(data, # theme_minimal histogram aes(x = x, fill = group)) + geom_histogram(alpha = 0.5, position = "identity", bins = 50) + theme_minimal()
Example 4: Draw ggplot2 Barchart Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(aggregate(y ~ group, data, sum), # theme_minimal barplot aes(x = group, y = y, fill = group)) + geom_bar(stat = "identity") + theme_minimal()
Example 5: Draw ggplot2 Boxplot Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(data, # theme_minimal boxplot aes(x = x, fill = group)) + geom_boxplot() + theme_minimal()
Example 6: Draw ggplot2 Line Plot Using theme_minimal()
ggplot(data, # theme_minimal line plot aes(x = x, y = y, col = group)) + geom_line() + theme_minimal()
Video, Further Resources & Summary
If you are interested in data visualization in R and the functions of the ggplot2 package, you have to watch the following video, where I explain the ggplot2 package in much more detail (beginners & advanced users).
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On Statistics Globe, you can also find tutorials on how to create other types of graphics such as scatterplots, density plots, barcharts, boxplots, histograms, and line plots using different ggplot2 themes:
- theme_bw
- theme_classic
- theme_dark
- theme_economist [ggthemes Package]
- theme_gray
- theme_light
- theme_linedraw
- theme_test
- theme_void
Also, you may have a look at the introductions to other add-on packages that provide extra themes for ggplot2 plots:
Furthermore, you may have a look at the related R posts on this homepage. A selection of interesting articles is shown below:
This tutorial has demonstrated how to apply the theme_minimal function to modify the design and layout of a ggplot2 plot in the R programming language. If you have additional questions or comments, tell me about it in the comments.
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