ggecho - an experimental ggplot stat for blurring elements

2019-03-22

ggecho

ggecho is a ggplot2 Stat which echoes the plotting data.

This can be used to create a blur effect for geom_point(), geom_line() and geom_text() (and probably some other geoms where the size parameter directly determines the area of the displayed element).

This ggplot2 stat works by duplicating/echoing the original data passed to ggplot, and adjusting each data echo by:

  • size (size_increment),
  • alpha (alpha_factor), and
  • position (x_offset & y_offset)

This package wouldn’t be possible without:

Installation

You can install thedevelopment version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("coolbutuseless/ggecho")

Simple blurred points and lines

This is a basic example which shows you how to solve a common problem:

library(ggecho)

ggplot(mtcars) +
  geom_point(aes(mpg, wt, size = disp), stat = "echo") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

ggplot(mtcars) +
  geom_line(aes(mpg, wt, colour = as.factor(am)), stat = "echo") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

ggplot(mtcars) +
  stat_echo(aes(mpg, wt, size = disp), geom = "point", size_increment = 2, alpha_factor = 0.5, 
            x_offset = 0.5, y_offset = 1, n = 10) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

Blurred text

text_df <- data.frame(x = c(0.3, 0.7), y = c(0.25, 0.25), label = c('hello', '#rstats'))

ggplot(text_df) + 
  geom_text(aes(x, y, label = label), size = 20, stat = 'echo', 
            size_increment = 2, y_offset = 0.0, n = 20, alpha_factor = 0.6) + 
  theme_void() + 
  xlim(0.1, 0.9) + ylim(0.1, 0.4)