ggplot color theme based on the Economist — theme

A theme that approximates the style of The Economist.

Usage

theme_economist(
  base_size = 10,
  base_family = "sans",
  horizontal = TRUE,
  dkpanel = FALSE
)

theme_economist_white(
  base_size = 11,
  base_family = "sans",
  gray_bg = TRUE,
  horizontal = TRUE
)

Arguments

base_size: base font size, given in pts.
base_family: base font family
horizontal: If TRUE (the default), draw horizontal grid lines.
dkpanel: If TRUE, use a darker background for the panel region. The default is FALSE.
gray_bg: If TRUE (the default), use a gray background; otherwise, use a white background.

Value

An object of class ggplot2::theme().

Details

theme_economist() implements the standard bluish-gray background theme in the print The Economist and economist.com.

theme_economist_white() implements a variant with a white panel and light gray (or white) background often used by The Economist blog Graphic Detail.

Use scale_color_economist() with this theme. The y axis should be displayed on the right hand side.

The Economist uses "ITC Officina Sans" as its font for graphs. If you have access to this font, you can use it with the extrafont package. "Verdana" is a good substitute.

Palettes

The theme sets economist_pal() for discrete color and fill scales as the default palettes, so a plot draws in the theme's colors without a matching scale. A scale_*() added to the plot still takes precedence.

References

Examples

library(ggplot2)

p <- ggplot(mtcars) +
     geom_point(aes(x = wt, y = mpg, colour = factor(gear))) +
     facet_wrap(~am) +
     # Economist puts x-axis labels on the right-hand side
     scale_y_continuous(position = "right")

## Standard
p + theme_economist() +
  scale_colour_economist()


# Change axis lines to vertical
p + theme_economist(horizontal = FALSE) +
    scale_colour_economist() +
    coord_flip()


## White panel/light gray background
p + theme_economist_white() +
    scale_colour_economist()


## All white variant
p + theme_economist_white(gray_bg = FALSE) +
    scale_colour_economist()


if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{

## The Economist uses ITC Officina Sans
library(extrafont)
p + theme_economist(base_family="ITC Officina Sans") +
    scale_colour_economist()

## Verdana is a widely available substitute
p + theme_economist(base_family="Verdana") +
    scale_colour_economist()

} # }