Color scales in R

Discrete palettes, continuous gradients, and naming colors yourself.

library(ggplot2)
library(tibble)

runs <- tibble(
  day = 1:6,
  tpm = c(88, 92, 96, 99, 104, 101),
  lang = rep(c("r", "python"), 3),
  accuracy = c(96, 97, 97.5, 98, 99, 98.5)
)

manual <- ggplot(runs, aes(day, tpm, colour = lang)) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = c(r = "#7c5cff", python = "#e06c75"))

continuous <- ggplot(runs, aes(day, tpm, fill = accuracy)) +
  geom_col() +
  scale_fill_viridis_c(option = "magma")

print(class(manual$scales$scales[[1]])[1])
ggsave(tempfile(fileext = ".png"), continuous, width = 4, height = 3,
       dpi = 100)

How it works

1. scale_color_manual takes a named vector of colors.
2. scale_fill_viridis_c is the perceptually even continuous option.
3. The British and American spellings both work.

Keywords and builtins used here

• aes
• c
• class
• geom_col
• geom_point
• ggplot
• ggsave
• library
• print
• rep
• scale_colour_manual
• scale_fill_viridis_c
• tempfile
• tibble

The run, in numbers

Lines

21

Characters to type

556

Tokens

180

Three-star pace

105 tpm

At the three-star pace of 105 tokens a minute, this run takes about 103 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 3 of 4 in Panels & scales, step 10 of 15 in ggplot2.

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