Padding around geom_points in ggplot

Question

I'm trying to replicate the plot on the left (from ggthemr package), but the closest I can get is the one on the right. Specifically, I'm trying to get one of the lines curved (like the green line in the example) while the other is straight (yellow). I'm also trying to get the padding around the geom_points so there's a bit of a gap between the points and the line.

My code for the current plot is as follows, and the data for this is down below:

    ggthemr("dust")
    
    plot <- ggplot(df, aes(x = month, y = unit, group = type)) +
        geom_line(aes(linetype = type, color = type, size = type)) +
        scale_size_manual(values=c(1.5, 1.5, 1)) +
        geom_point(aes(color = type, shape = type), size = 2) +
        scale_colour_ggthemr_d()

Any help would be appreciated!

Data:

df <- structure(list(type = c("Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", 
"Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", 
"Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2", 
"Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", 
"Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2", "Group1", "Group3", 
"Group2", "Group1", "Group3", "Group2"), month = structure(c(1L, 
1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 6L, 6L, 
6L, 7L, 7L, 7L, 8L, 8L, 8L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 10L, 10L, 10L, 11L, 11L, 
11L, 12L, 12L, 12L), .Label = c("January", "February", "March", 
"April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", 
"November", "December"), class = "factor"), unit = c(160.294407837043, 
256.471052539269, 405.791621951561, 93.7033481198376, 149.92535699174, 
394.453657583648, 512.563348094638, 820.101356951421, 586.017227590648, 
320.748004278314, 513.196806845303, 798.144144659107, 364.518771412572, 
583.230034260115, 561.946577331653, 338.618410043399, 541.789456069438, 
623.973070608988, 561.319198098838, 898.110716958141, 550.000251812964, 
339.53675851603, 543.258813625647, 792.931412417752, 968.459890522189, 
1549.5358248355, NA, 421.603176847263, 674.565082955621, NA, 
429.64394748425, 687.430315974801, NA, 516.598236578468, 826.557178525549, 
NA)), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -36L))

Among CRAN packages I'm aware of, there is `lemon::geom_pointpath` and `ggh4x::geom_pointpath` that pad around the points. The author of `ggthemr` plots a foreground point over a background point with the same colour as the panel's background. See also: https://stackoverflow.com/q/38895565/11374827. (disclaimer: I'm the author of ggh4x). The 'curvature' depends on the data: there isn't really a curved line, there are just pieces of straight lines. — teunbrand, Sep 07 '21 at 12:04

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '21 at 13:39

For the curved line, you can use the ggalt xspline function. No idea how to solve this with base ggplot btw.

library(tidyverse)
p <- ggplot(df, aes(x = month, y = unit, group = type)) +
       geom_line(data = . %>% filter(type != "Group1"), aes(color = type)) +
       ggalt::geom_xspline(data = . %>% filter(type == "Group1"),aes(color = type))  + 
       theme_bw()
 p

The padding around the geom_points can be introduced using some stroke:

p + geom_point(aes(fill = type, ), shape = 22, color ="white", stroke=2, size=2)

Padding around geom_points in ggplot

1 Answers1