A precise & pristine ggplot2 theme with opinionated defaults and an emphasis on typography

Also has a "dark" / "modern" version for the new RStudio theme

theme_ipsum(base_family = "Arial Narrow", base_size = 11.5,
  plot_title_family = base_family, plot_title_size = 18,
  plot_title_face = "bold", plot_title_margin = 10,
  subtitle_family = base_family, subtitle_size = 12,
  subtitle_face = "plain", subtitle_margin = 15,
  strip_text_family = base_family, strip_text_size = 12,
  strip_text_face = "plain", caption_family = base_family,
  caption_size = 9, caption_face = "italic", caption_margin = 10,
  axis_text_size = base_size, axis_title_family = subtitle_family,
  axis_title_size = 9, axis_title_face = "plain",
  axis_title_just = "rt", plot_margin = margin(30, 30, 30, 30),
  grid_col = "#cccccc", grid = TRUE, axis_col = "#cccccc",
  axis = FALSE, ticks = FALSE)

Arguments

base_family, base_size	base font family and size
plot_title_family, plot_title_face, plot_title_size, plot_title_margin	plot title family, face, size and margi
subtitle_family, subtitle_face, subtitle_size	plot subtitle family, face and size
subtitle_margin	plot subtitle margin bottom (single numeric value)
strip_text_family, strip_text_face, strip_text_size	facet label font family, face and size
caption_family, caption_face, caption_size, caption_margin	plot caption family, face, size and margin
axis_text_size	font size of axis text
axis_title_family, axis_title_face, axis_title_size	axis title font family, face and size
axis_title_just	axis title font justification, one of [blmcrt]
plot_margin	plot margin (specify with ggplot2::margin())
grid_col, axis_col	grid & axis colors; both default to #cccccc
grid	panel grid (TRUE, FALSE, or a combination of X, x, Y, y)
axis	add x or y axes? TRUE, FALSE, "xy"
ticks	ticks if TRUE add ticks

Why Arial Narrow?

First and foremost, Arial Narrow is generally installed by default or readily available on any modern system, so it's "free"-ish; plus, it is a condensed font with solid default kerning pairs and geometric numbers.

Building upon theme_ipsum

The function is setup in such a way that you can customize your own one by just wrapping the call and changing the parameters. See source for examples.

Gotchas

There are distinctions between font names and various devices. Names that work for display graphics devices and bitmap ones such as png may not work well for PostScript or PDF ones. You may need two versions of a font-based theme function for them to work in a particular situation. This situation usually only arises when using a newer font with many weights but somewhat irregular internal font name patterns.

There is an option hrbrthemes.loadfonts which -- if set to TRUE -- will call extrafont::loadfonts() to register non-core fonts with R PDF & PostScript devices. If you are running under Windows, the package calls the same function to register non-core fonts with the Windows graphics device.

Examples

# NOT RUN {
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)

# seminal scatterplot
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(x="Fuel effiiency (mpg)", y="Weight (tons)",
       title="Seminal ggplot2 scatterplot example",
       subtitle="A plot that is only useful for demonstration purposes",
       caption="Brought to you by the letter 'g'") +
  theme_ipsum()

# seminal bar chart

update_geom_font_defaults()

count(mpg, class) %>%
  ggplot(aes(class, n)) +
  geom_col() +
  geom_text(aes(label=n), nudge_y=3) +
  labs(x="Fuel efficiency (mpg)", y="Weight (tons)",
       title="Seminal ggplot2 bar chart example",
       subtitle="A plot that is only useful for demonstration purposes",
       caption="Brought to you by the letter 'g'") +
  theme_ipsum(grid="Y") +
  theme(axis.text.y=element_blank())
# }