theme_no_axes()

theme_no_axes() removes the axis text, title, ticks and grid lines for most themed plot, particularly useful in some cases:

library(tidyverse)
library(ggforce)

ggplot(mpg, aes(hwy, cty)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_no_axes(base.theme = theme_dark()) 

ggplot(mpg, aes(hwy, cty)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_no_axes(base.theme = ggthemes::theme_economist_white()) 

facet_zoom()

facet_zoom() zooms on a particular data category within a plot. Below we’ll use the starwars data frame and zoom on the x-axis of the female category from the sex variable.

ggplot(starwars, aes(mass, height, col = sex)) + 
  geom_point(na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_zoom(x = sex == "female", zoom.size = 2) +
  ggthemes::theme_hc()

facet_row()

facet_row() is a one-dimensional version of facet_wrap(). It aligns all the subplot into one row:

library(palmerpenguins)

ggplot(penguins) +
  geom_point(aes(bill_length_mm, body_mass_g), col = "white", na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_row(~island) +
  theme_no_axes(base.theme = theme_dark()) 

facet_col does the same thing except that it arranges sub-plots within one column :

ggplot(penguins) +
  geom_point(aes(bill_length_mm, body_mass_g), col = "white", na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_col(~island) +
  theme_no_axes(base.theme = theme_dark()) 

From Unsplash by Phoenix Han

facet_matrix()

Using facet_matrix() you can specify a matrix composed of inter-related plots. In the example below, we’ll map bill_length_mm, bill_depth_mm and flipper_length_mm (on the x-axis) with body_mass_g (on the y-axis):

ggplot(penguins, aes(x = .panel_x, y = .panel_y, col = sex)) +
  geom_point(na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(body_mass_g), 
               cols = vars(bill_length_mm, bill_depth_mm, flipper_length_mm), 
               switch = "x")

You can remove the x = .panel_x, y = .panel_y part using the geom_autopoint() function:

ggplot(penguins, aes(col = sex)) +
  geom_autopoint(na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(body_mass_g), 
               cols = vars(bill_length_mm, bill_depth_mm, flipper_length_mm), 
               switch = "x")

In the same way, you can get an overview of the different interactions between many numerical variables:

ggplot(penguins, aes(col = sex)) +
  geom_autopoint(na.rm = TRUE) +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(bill_length_mm:body_mass_g),
               switch = "x")

It’s also possible to include interactions between numerical and categorical variables (be sure to drop missing values beforehand):

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(col = sex)) +
  geom_autopoint() +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(island:body_mass_g),
               switch = "x") +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90))

Further, it’s possible to plot histograms within the diagonal of the matrix using the geom_autohistogram() function:

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(col = sex, fill = sex)) +
  geom_autopoint() +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(island:body_mass_g),
               switch = "x", layer.diag = 2) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90)) +
  geom_autohistogram()

Here the layer.diag argument determines which layer will be used within the diagonal. In this case, we’ve specified the value 2 which corresponds to the second layer: geom_autohistogram().

In the same manner, we can use geom_autodensity() to plot densities:

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(col = sex, fill = sex)) +
  geom_autopoint() +
  facet_matrix(rows = vars(island:body_mass_g),
               switch = "x", layer.diag = 2) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90)) +
  geom_autodensity()

geom_mark_ellipse()

First, we render the following plot:

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(bill_depth_mm, body_mass_g, col = species)) +
  geom_point(na.rm = TRUE)

Now, let’s say we want to highlight a particular species (e.g. Gentoo), we’ll use the geom_mark_ellipse() as follows:

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(bill_depth_mm, body_mass_g)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_mark_ellipse(aes(filter = species == "Gentoo", 
                        label = "Gentoo", 
                        description = "Gentoo penguins seem quite different from the other species"),
                        label.fill = "pink",
                        label.colour = "red", 
                        con.colour = "red",
                        con.linetype = 2, 
                        expand = unit(2, "mm")) 

Note that there’re other geom_mark_*() functions (e.g. geom_mark_rect) that you can use:

ggplot(penguins %>% drop_na(), aes(bill_depth_mm, body_mass_g)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_mark_rect(aes(filter = species == "Gentoo", 
                        label = "Gentoo", 
                        description = "Gentoo penguins seem quite different from the other species"),
                        label.fill = "pink",
                        label.colour = "red", 
                        con.colour = "red",
                        con.linetype = 2, 
                        expand = unit(0.01, "mm"), 
                        fill = "pink")