Adding text outside the ggplot area

Question

I am trying to make a combo chart using ggplot2. However i want to add a text box sort outside my plot body. I am unable to place it at the desired location

I have used grid pack to create grob and include that in annotation in the ggplot code. Additionally i have also put the same text in geom_text. How do i ensure the text comes say below the legend. Following is my code

m <- ggplot() +
  geom_area(data= (ly_vol_ntwk %>%
                     mutate(Wk_end_d = as.factor(Wk_end_d))%>%
                     filter(!is.na(value_new))),
            aes(x = Wk_end_d, y = value_new ,group = variable,fill=variable))+ 
  geom_bar(data = (fcst_act_vol_ntwk %>% 
                     mutate(Wk_end_d = as.factor(Wk_end_d))%>%
                     filter(!is.na(value_new))),
           aes(x = Wk_end_d, y = value_new, group = variable, fill = variable), 
           stat = "identity",position = "dodge", width =0.5)+
  geom_line(data = (var_vol_ntwk %>% 
                      mutate(Wk_end_d = as.factor(Wk_end_d))%>%
                      filter(!is.na(value_new))),
            aes(x = Wk_end_d, y = value_new, 
                group = variable, fill= variable), size = 0.8)+ 
  scale_y_continuous(sec.axis = sec_axis(trans = ~./100000, 
                                         name = "Variance", breaks = waiver(),
                                         labels=function(x) paste0(x,"%")))+ 
  theme_set(theme_bw())+ 
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle=65, vjust=0.5,face = "plain"),
        text = element_text(size=9), legend.position = "bottom", legend.title = element_blank())+ 
  labs(title= "Inbound - Network", x= "Week end date", y = " ")+ 
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("#C5E0B4","#7030A0", "#D9D9D9","#ED7D31","black"))+ 
  geom_text(label = "LW Variance",
            aes(x = 19, y = -1960000),
            check_overlap = TRUE) #annotation_custom(grob = textGrob("LW Variance"), xmin = 18, xmax = 18, ymin = -1030000, ymax = -1030000)+ coord_cartesian(clip = 'off')

I need to get the text box with a border outside the area of the ggplot. Can you please help me?

Do captions produce the effect you want? `p + labs(caption = "Your text here")`. You can control it further with `theme(plot.caption = element_text(...))` — Gabriel M. Silva, Aug 02 '19 at 18:25
what do i need to mention in the element_text() part in plot.caption? How can i say it to appear below the legend or say at the top , outside the plot? — rhitima, Aug 02 '19 at 18:28
Your code is not reproducible, there is no data. Furthermore, the code example should be *minimal*, and if all you want is to display text outside the plot area, you should simplify the example. — Rui Barradas, Aug 02 '19 at 18:28
Possible duplicate of [ggplot2 - annotate outside of plot](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12409960/ggplot2-annotate-outside-of-plot) — tjebo, Aug 04 '19 at 12:06

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 02 '19 at 18:49

You can place text below plot area with labs(caption = "text"), but you can't place captions on top of the plot. However, you could use subtitles labs(subtitle = "text") to produce a similar visual of captions on the top.

To further control the aspect of both options use theme(plot.caption = element_text(...), plot.subtitle = element_text(...)). Type ?element_text in your console to get all the options for text formatting.

For example:

library(ggplot2)

df <- data.frame(x = rnorm(50), y = rnorm(50))

ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(subtitle = "Your text here", caption = "Your text here") +
  theme(plot.caption = element_text(colour = "red", hjust = 0, angle = 15),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 18, face = "bold", hjust = 0.8))

Thanks a lot this worked wonderfully! I have added the caption. I have one more issue though, is there a way to incorporate an image as logo in ggplot? — rhitima, Aug 06 '19 at 06:39
You can check [this question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41574732/how-to-add-logo-on-ggplot2-footer) or maybe [this blog post](https://www.danielphadley.com/ggplot-logo/) (`magick` package) for adding a logo. — Gabriel M. Silva, Aug 06 '19 at 17:22

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 02 '19 at 19:43

If you want it below your current legend, you can always add a dummy legend and put your text as its name. An example:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = gear,fill = "a")) + 
  geom_point() + 
  scale_fill_discrete(name = "Your custom caption\ngoes here", labels = "") + 
  theme(legend.key = element_rect(fill = "white")) +
  guides(color = guide_legend(order = 1),
      fill = guide_legend(order = 2, override.aes = list(linetype = 0, shape=NA))) # setting the order parameter in guide_legend will help place it below your existing legend(s)

Adding text outside the ggplot area

2 Answers2