The current/active theme (see theme()) is automatically applied to every plot you draw. Use theme_get to get the current theme, and theme_set to completely override it. theme_update and theme_replace are shorthands for changing individual elements.

theme_get()

theme_set(new)

theme_update(...)

theme_replace(...)

e1 %+replace% e2

Arguments

new

new theme (a list of theme elements)

...

named list of theme settings

e1, e2

Theme and element to combine

Value

theme_set, theme_update, and theme_replace invisibly return the previous theme so you can easily save it, then later restore it.

Adding on to a theme

+ and %+replace% can be used to modify elements in themes.

+ updates the elements of e1 that differ from elements specified (not NULL) in e2. Thus this operator can be used to incrementally add or modify attributes of a ggplot theme.

In contrast, %+replace% replaces the entire element; any element of a theme not specified in e2 will not be present in the resulting theme (i.e. NULL). Thus this operator can be used to overwrite an entire theme.

theme_update uses the + operator, so that any unspecified values in the theme element will default to the values they are set in the theme. theme_replace uses %+replace% to completely replace the element, so any unspecified values will overwrite the current value in the theme with NULL.

In summary, the main differences between theme_set(), theme_update(), and theme_replace() are:

  • theme_set() completely overrides the current theme.

  • theme_update() modifies a particular element of the current theme using the + operator.

  • theme_replace() modifies a particular element of the current theme using the %+replace% operator.

See also

Examples

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point() p
# Use theme_set() to completely override the current theme. # theme_update() and theme_replace() are similar except they # apply directly to the current/active theme. # theme_update() modifies a particular element of the current theme. # Here we have the old theme so we can later restore it. # Note that the theme is applied when the plot is drawn, not # when it is created. old <- theme_set(theme_bw()) p
theme_set(old) theme_update(panel.grid.minor = element_line(colour = "red")) p
theme_set(old) theme_replace(panel.grid.minor = element_line(colour = "red")) p
theme_set(old) p
# Modifying theme objects ----------------------------------------- # You can use + and %+replace% to modify a theme object. # They differ in how they deal with missing arguments in # the theme elements. add_el <- theme_grey() + theme(text = element_text(family = "Times")) add_el$text
#> List of 11 #> $ family : chr "Times" #> $ face : chr "plain" #> $ colour : chr "black" #> $ size : num 11 #> $ hjust : num 0.5 #> $ vjust : num 0.5 #> $ angle : num 0 #> $ lineheight : num 0.9 #> $ margin : 'margin' num [1:4] 0pt 0pt 0pt 0pt #> ..- attr(*, "valid.unit")= int 8 #> ..- attr(*, "unit")= chr "pt" #> $ debug : logi FALSE #> $ inherit.blank: logi FALSE #> - attr(*, "class")= chr [1:2] "element_text" "element"
rep_el <- theme_grey() %+replace% theme(text = element_text(family = "Times")) rep_el$text
#> List of 11 #> $ family : chr "Times" #> $ face : NULL #> $ colour : NULL #> $ size : NULL #> $ hjust : NULL #> $ vjust : NULL #> $ angle : NULL #> $ lineheight : NULL #> $ margin : NULL #> $ debug : NULL #> $ inherit.blank: logi FALSE #> - attr(*, "class")= chr [1:2] "element_text" "element"