How to make graphics with transparent background in R using ggplot2

Question

I need to output ggplot2 graphics from R to PNG files with transparent background  Everything is ok with basic R graphics  but no transparency with ggplot2   d  lt - rnorm 100   generating random data   this returns transparent png png  tr tst1 png  width 300 height 300 units  px  bg    transparent   boxplot d  dev off    df  lt - data frame y d x 1  p  lt - ggplot df    stat boxplot aes x   x y y    p  lt - p   opts      panel background   theme rect fill    transparent  colour   NA     or theme blank       panel grid minor   theme blank         panel grid major   theme blank      returns white background png  tr tst2 png  width 300 height 300 units  px  bg    transparent   p dev off     Is there any way to get transparent background with ggplot2

User · Answer

There is also a plot background option in addition to panel background   df  lt - data frame y d x 1  p  lt - ggplot df    stat boxplot aes x   x y y    p  lt - p   opts      panel background   theme rect fill    transparent  colour   NA     or theme blank       panel grid minor   theme blank         panel grid major   theme blank        plot background   theme rect fill    transparent  colour   NA     returns white background png  tr tst2 png  width 300 height 300 units  px  bg    transparent   print p  dev off     For some reason  the uploaded image is displaying differently than on my computer  so I ve omitted it  But for me  I get a plot with an entirely gray background except for the box part of the boxplot which is still white  That can be changed using the fill aesthetic in the boxplot geom as well  I believe   Edit  ggplot2 has since been updated and the opts   function has been deprecated  Currently  you would use theme   instead of opts   and element rect   instead of theme rect    etc

User · Answer

As for someone don t like gray background like academic editor  try this  p  lt - p   theme bw   p

User · Answer

Updated with the theme   function  ggsave   and the code for the legend background   df  lt - data frame y   d  x   1  group   rep c  gr1    gr2    50   p  lt - ggplot df      stat boxplot aes x   x  y   y  color   group                   fill    transparent    for the inside of the boxplot        Fastest way is using using rect  as all the rectangle elements inherit from rect   p  lt - p     theme          rect   element rect fill    transparent     all rectangles             p   More controlled way is to use options of theme   p  lt - p     theme      panel background   element rect fill    transparent      bg of the panel     plot background   element rect fill    transparent   color   NA     bg of the plot     panel grid major   element blank      get rid of major grid     panel grid minor   element blank      get rid of minor grid     legend background   element rect fill    transparent      get rid of legend bg     legend box background   element rect fill    transparent     get rid of legend panel bg     p   To save  this last step is important    ggsave p  filename    tr tst2 png    bg    transparent

User · Answer

Just to improve YCR s answer   1  I added black lines on x and y axis  Otherwise they are made transparent too   2  I added a transparent theme to the legend key  Otherwise  you will get a fill there      which won t be very esthetic   Finally  note that all those work only with pdf and png formats  jpeg fails to produce transparent graphs   MyTheme transparent  lt - theme      panel background   element rect fill    transparent      bg of the panel     plot background   element rect fill    transparent   color   NA     bg of the plot     panel grid major   element blank      get rid of major grid     panel grid minor   element blank      get rid of minor grid     legend background   element rect fill    transparent      get rid of legend bg     legend box background   element rect fill    transparent      get rid of legend panel bg     legend key   element rect fill    transparent   colour   NA     get rid of key legend fill  and of the surrounding     axis line   element line colour    black     adding a black line for x and y axis

[r] How to make graphics with transparent background in R using ggplot2?

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