How to make captions in ggplot2 more aesthetically pleasing?

Question

I tried to add captions in some plots that will be shown in a .rmd file, but the captions added are not very aesthetically pleasing. It will look much better if I just include the captions in the .rmd file instead of the plot. Are there any ways to make the captions look prettier in ggplot2?

library(ggplot2)

data <- data.frame(col = c("left", "right"),
                   row = c("first", "second", "third", "fourth"),
                   x = rep.int(1,4),
                   y = rep.int(1,4))
data$col <- as.character(data$col)
data$row <- as.character(data$row)

caption <- paste(strwrap("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.", width = 170), collapse = "\n")

ggplot(data = data) +
  facet_grid(row~col) +
  labs(x = "x", y = "y", caption = caption) +
  theme_bw(base_size = 16) +
  theme(legend.position = "bottom",
        plot.margin = margin(15, 15, 15, 15),
        plot.caption = element_text(size = 10, hjust = 0))

The captions that I added

I have tried that, and it looks really good. But I want my captions to be generated in R so that whoever uses my code can generate the same plot with the same captions. — Yuxin Wu, Aug 01 '17 at 20:07
I think you have to be more specific when you say "prettier", a piece of text is what it is. — S Rivero, Aug 01 '17 at 20:49
I'm not sure what this problem has to do with RStudio? Does the caption look good if you run the code using the command line or RGui, and it only looks bad in RStudio? — Gregor Thomas, Aug 01 '17 at 22:00
You can generate the captions using R within markdown `{r myChunk, fig.cap = paste(...)}` — Richard Telford, Aug 01 '17 at 23:09

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '17 at 21:10

library(ggplot2)

data <- data.frame(col = c("left", "right"),
                   row = c("first", "second", "third", "fourth"),
                   x = rep.int(1,4),
                   y = rep.int(1,4))
data$col <- as.character(data$col)
data$row <- as.character(data$row)

caption <- paste(strwrap("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.", width = 170), collapse = "\n")

library(extrafont)
font_import(prompt=FALSE) # This installs the fonts. Only run this once! 
loadfonts(device="win") # Loads the fonts

fonts_lookup = t(data.frame(windowsFonts())) # font lookup table

ggplot(data = data) +
  facet_grid(row~col) +
  labs(x = "x", y = "y", caption = caption) +
  theme_bw(base_size = 16) +
  theme(legend.position = "bottom",
        plot.margin = margin(15, 15, 15, 15),
        plot.caption = element_text(size = 12, hjust = 0.5,
                                    family = "Garamond", color = "blue", face = "bold"))

Maybe change the font family, color, or face, or all at the same time? You can refer to this question for fonts: Changing fonts in ggplot2. The extrafont package let's you install a lot more fonts than what is already available. windowsFonts() let's you check what fonts are already loaded. I've created fonts_lookup for easy lookup of fonts and their respective names. As for which font is the "prettiest", that's very subjective.

How to make captions in ggplot2 more aesthetically pleasing?

1 Answers1