ggplot Style in Classic R Plots

ggplot is a highly acclaimed R package for plotting. I have had very little experience with the library because I've mostly memorized all the quirks of normal R plots. I like the ggplot default style though, so I thought write down how to replicate it in R plots. The distinctive feature of ggplot is the gray rectangle and white grid lines. This may be replicated like so:

	#set-up plot coordinate system.
	plot(0,0, xlim=c(0,10), ylim=c(0,10), xlab="X", ylab="Y")
	#cover up plot with rectangle
	rect(par("usr")[1],par("usr")[3],par("usr")[2],par("usr")[4],col = "dark gray")
	#now plot the grid
	grid(col="white", lty=1)
	#now plot data with specific plot type
	lines(...)
	points(...)
	#make sure to put the "add=T" to prevent
	#hist from replacing the plot.
	hist(..., add=T)

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Here's an example

Here's the code to generate that plot:

	#set-up plot to be default blogger size. Most computer plots are 90 resolution. Print is about 250
	png("ggplot.png", width=400, height=225, res=90)
	#Use LaTeX sans font and dark gray annotations. Cut out x-axis label and shrink margins.
	par(family="LMSans10", fg="dark gray", mar=c(3,4,1,1))
	#set-up plot margins and axis-lables
	plot(0,0, xlim=c(-5,5), ylim=c(0,0.5), xlab="", ylab="P(x)")
	#code from above
	rect(par("usr")[1],par("usr")[3],par("usr")[2],par("usr")[4],col = "dark gray")
	grid(col="white", lty=1)
	#plot gaussian with color specified and width set at 2
	lines(seq(-5,5,0.01), dnorm(seq(-5,5,0.01)), col="black", lwd=2)
	graphics.off()

view raw gistfile1.r hosted with ❤ by GitHub

If you ever dislike that extra space that extends the plot region, it may be removed by adding xaxs="i" to par or plot.