ggplot2: How do I set the default fill-colour of geom_bar() in a theme

Question

I'd like to define a theme for ggplot2 so that the default colour of geom_bar() is not black.

How can I do this?

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 17 '13 at 14:56

9

you can't do it in a theme (sadly).

You want to change the default settings of a geom,

  update_geom_defaults("bar",   list(fill = "red"))

and you can also change a default scale, e.g.

  scale_colour_continuous <- function(...) 
         scale_colour_gradient(low = "blue", high = "red", na.value="grey50", ...)

answered Jun 17 '13 at 14:56

baptiste

Thanks for the answer. As you mentioned that's not exactly what I was looking for but better than to specify the color in each geom_bar. – JerryWho Jun 17 '13 at 18:56

topchef · Answer 2 · 2013-06-17T15:20:00.720

1

Theme controls apperance of non-data elements, so you need to work with scale functions. Try scale_fill_brewer, e.g.:

 scale_fill_brewer(palette = "Set1")

For details on this function see here.

edited Jun 17 '13 at 15:20

answered Jun 17 '13 at 14:51

topchef

1

Not what he wants I think. This doesn't work for instance:theme_new <- geom_bar(fill="white") ggplot(iris)+ geom_bar(aes(Sepal.Length)) + theme_new – Jonas Tundo Jun 17 '13 at 14:54
No, I'd like to set the default colour in the theme as JT85 mentioned – JerryWho Jun 17 '13 at 14:57
I see, no problem, will keep answer while thinking about it. – topchef Jun 17 '13 at 14:57
changed to use scale_fill_brewer – topchef Jun 17 '13 at 15:04

2 Answers2