Change background color of combined plots in ggpubr::ggarrange

Question

My ggplot

I can't figure out why the bottom corners background is white, while the rest of the plot is grey. Is there anyway I can change the bottom corners color to the same background as the rest of the plot?

The code im using for each plot is:

HP_specifikationer_model1 <- ggplot(Svar_spec_data)+geom_hline(yintercept=0)
geom_line(aes(y=HP1, x=kvartaler, color = "HP-BNP-KRE-REN")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP2, x=kvartaler, color = "REN-KRE-HP-BNP")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP3, x=kvartaler, color = "BNP-KRE-REN-HP")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP4, x=kvartaler, color = "KRE-HP-REN-BNP")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP5, x=kvartaler, color = "BNP-KRE-HP-REN")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP6, x=kvartaler, color = "BNP-REN-HP-KRE")) +
geom_line(aes(y=HP7, x=kvartaler, color = "REN-HP-BNP-KRE")) +
scale_color_manual(name='Specifikation',
                 breaks=c('HP-BNP-KRE-REN', 'REN-KRE-HP-BNP', 'BNP-KRE-REN-HP',
                          'KRE-HP-REN-BNP', 'BNP-KRE-HP-REN', 'BNP-REN-HP-KRE',
                          'REN-HP-BNP-KRE'),
                 values=c('HP-BNP-KRE-REN'='red', 'REN-KRE-HP-BNP'='blue', 'BNP-KRE-REN-HP'='green',
                          'KRE-HP-REN-BNP'='cyan', 'BNP-KRE-HP-REN'='lightpink', 'BNP-REN-HP-KRE'='orange',
                          'REN-HP-BNP-KRE'='black'))+
labs(title = "Varrierende SVAR matricer ved stød til Boligpriserne", x="Lag (Måneder)", y="Respons fra boligprisen", caption = "Egne beregninger", color= T)+
theme(legend.position="right") + theme(panel.grid.minor.x = element_blank()) + th

The th at the end of the code is defined with this code:

th <- theme(title = element_text(colour = "#404040"),
        plot.background=element_rect(fill="#f3f3f3"),  
        panel.background = element_rect(fill="#f3f3f3"), 
        legend.background = element_rect(fill="#f3f3f3"),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(color="#666666"),
        plot.caption = element_text(color="#616161", size=9),
        legend.key = element_rect(fill = "#f3f3f3", colour = "#f3f3f3"),
        plot.margin = unit(c(0.5, 0.7, 0.5, 0.7), "cm"), 
        panel.border = element_rect(color = "black",
                                fill = NA,
                                size = 0.15))

The code im using is to arrange my plots is:

ggarrange(BNP_specifikationer_model1,
RENTE_specifikationer_model1,
KREDIT_specifikationer_model1,
HP_specifikationer_model1,
ncol=2, nrow=2, common.legend = TRUE, legend="bottom")

Does that mean there is no way to make the bottom corners grey as the plots, because I use ggarrange? @tjebo — Andreas Østergaard, May 26 '22 at 09:52
see this thread, which is related. Using cowplot instead should make it easier to change the background https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49158165/how-does-one-set-the-background-color-of-a-multiplot-figure-created-via-grid-arr — tjebo, May 26 '22 at 09:53
I've added a solution with patchwork which I generally prefer for combining plots — tjebo, May 26 '22 at 10:02
Consider converting from [wide-to-long](https://stackoverflow.com/q/2185252/680068), it would make the ggplot code a lot simpler. — zx8754, May 26 '22 at 10:33
Thanks @tjebo, I added bgcolor to the ggarrange code, and it solved the problem — Andreas Østergaard, May 26 '22 at 10:45

tjebo · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-26T10:02:31.643

I think in ggpubr, you can use bgcolor

You can also use cowplot, such as in this thread

Or patchwork, as per below, with the advantage that you avoid repeated calls of your theme!

## Given that your data is not reproducible, here a made up example.

library(ggpubr)
#> Loading required package: ggplot2
# Create some plots - based on the example ?ggpubr::ggarrange
data("ToothGrowth")
df <- ToothGrowth
df$dose <- as.factor(df$dose)
bxp <- ggboxplot(df, x = "dose", y = "len",
                 color = "dose", palette = "jco")
dp <- ggdotplot(df, x = "dose", y = "len",
                color = "dose", palette = "jco")
dens <- ggdensity(df, x = "len", fill = "dose", palette = "jco")

# ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
ggarrange(bxp, dp, dens, ncol = 2, nrow = 2) + bgcolor("Grey")         
#> Bin width defaults to 1/30 of the range of the data. Pick better value with `binwidth`.

Another option, using {patchwork}, changing the general theme with & theme()

library(patchwork)
bxp + dp + dens + plot_layout(ncol = 2) &
  theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill = "Grey"))
#> Bin width defaults to 1/30 of the range of the data. Pick better value with `binwidth`.

^{Created on 2022-05-26 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Change background color of combined plots in ggpubr::ggarrange

1 Answers1