Legends for multiple fills in ggplot

Question

I am a beginner in ggplot2. So, I apologize if this question sounds too basic. I'd appreciate any guidance. I've spent 4 hours on this and looked at this SO thread R: Custom Legend for Multiple Layer ggplot for guidance, but ended up nowhere.

Objective: I want to be able to apply legend to different fill colors used for different layers. I am doing this example just for the sake of testing my understanding of applying concepts ggplot2 concepts.

Also, I do NOT want to change the shape type; changing fill colors is fine--by "fill" I do not mean that we could change "color". So, I would appreciate if you can correct my mistakes in my work.

Try 1: Here's the bare bones code without any colors set manually.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(disp,mpg)) +
geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
geom_point (aes(fill = factor(cyl)),shape = 21, size = 2) +
geom_rect(aes(xmin = min(disp)-5, ymax = max(mpg) + 2,fill = "cyan"), 
xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp)),ymin = 25, alpha = 0.02) ##region for high mpg

The output looks like this:

Now, there are a few problems with this image:

Issue 1) The cyan rectangle that shows "high mpg areas" has lost its legend.

Issue 2) ggplot tries to combine the legend from the two geom_point() layers and as a result the legend for the two geom_point() are also mixed.

Issue 3) The default color paleltte used by ggplot2 makes the colors non-distinguishable for my eyes.

So, I took a stab at manually setting the colors i.e.start with fixing #3 above.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(disp,mpg)) + 
       geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4)+
       geom_point(aes(fill = factor(cyl)),shape = 21, size = 2) +
       geom_rect(aes(xmin = min(disp)-5, ymax = max(mpg) + 2,fill = "cyan"),
                 xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp)),ymin = 25, alpha = 0.02) + 
     scale_fill_manual(values = c("green","blue", "black", "cyan", "red", "orange"), 
labels=c("4 gears","6 gears","8 gears","High mpg","0","1"))

Here's the output: Unfortunately, some of the problems highlighted above persist. There is new issue about ordering.

Issue#4: It seems to me that ggplot2 expects me to provide colors in the order the layers were set. i.e. first set the color for mtcars$vs fill, then mtcars$cyl fill and finally the rectangle with cyan color. I was able to fix it by modifying the code to:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(disp,mpg)) + 
       geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
       geom_point(aes(fill = factor(cyl)),shape = 21, size = 2) +
       geom_rect(aes(xmin = min(disp)-5, ymax = max(mpg) + 2,fill = "cyan"),
                 xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp)),ymin = 25, alpha = 0.02) + 
     scale_fill_manual(values = c("red", "orange", "green", "blue", "black", "cyan"), 
labels=c("0","1","4 gears","6 gears","8 gears","High mpg")) #changed the order

So, I have two questions:

Question 1: How do I fix the legends--I want three different legends--one for rectangle fill (which I call high mpg rectangle), another one for fill for geom_point() represented by mtcars$vs and the last one for fill for geom_point()represented by mtcars$cyl

Question2: Is my hypothesis about ordering of colors as per the layers correct (i.e. Issue#4 discussed above)? I am doubtful because what if there are a lot of factors--are we required to memorize them, then order them as per the layers drawn and finally remember to apply color palette manually in the order each geom_*() layers are created?

As a beginner, I have spent a lot many hours on this, googling everywhere. So, I'd appreciate your kind guidance.

Answer 1

There is now the great ggnewscale package allowing to do this in a simple way.

Answer 2

You can also achieve this by layering multiple plots, using the align_plots and ggdraw functions in cowplot. This is the solution I used for putting a scatterpie (discrete colour scale) onto a raster (continuous colour scale). See the vignette in the following link.

https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/cowplot/versions/0.9.2/topics/align_plots

Answer 3

(Note, I edited this to clean it up after a few back and forths -- see the revision history for more of what I tried.)

The scales really are meant to show one type of data. One approach is to use both col and fill, that can get you to at least 2 legends. You can then add linetype and hack it a bit using override.aes. Of note, I think this is likely to (generally) lead you to more problems than it will solve. If you desperately need to do this, you can (example below). However, if I can convince you: I implore you not to use this approach if at all possible. Mapping to different things (e.g. shape and linetype) is likely to lead to less confusion. I give an example of that below.

Also, when setting colors or fills manually, it is always a good idea to use named vectors for palette that ensure the colors match what you want. If not, the matches happen in order of the factor levels.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                   , y = mpg)) +
  ##region for high mpg 
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "High MPG")
            , xmin = min(mtcars$disp)-5
            , ymax = max(mtcars$mpg) + 2
            , fill = "cyan"
            , xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp))
            , ymin = 25
            , alpha = 0.02
            , col = "black") + 
  ## test diff region
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "Other Region")
            , xmin = 300
            , xmax = 400
            , ymax = 30
            , ymin = 25
            , fill = "yellow"
            , alpha = 0.02
            , col = "black") + 
  geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
  geom_point (aes(col = factor(cyl)),shape = 19, size = 2) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c("4" = "red"
                                , "6" = "orange"
                                , "8" = "green")
                     , name = "Cylinders") +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("0" = "blue"
                               , "1" = "black"
                               , "cyan" = "cyan")
                    , name = "V/S"
                    , labels = c("0?", "1?", "High MPG")) +
  scale_linetype_manual(values = c("High MPG" = 0
                                   , "Other Region" = 0)
                        , name = "Region"
                        , guide = guide_legend(override.aes = list(fill = c("cyan", "yellow")
                                                                       , alpha = .4)))

Here is the plot I think will work better for nearly all use cases:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                   , y = mpg)) +
  ##region for high mpg 
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "High MPG")
            , xmin = min(mtcars$disp)-5
            , ymax = max(mtcars$mpg) + 2
            , fill = NA
            , xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp))
            , ymin = 25
            , col = "black") + 
  ## test diff region
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "Other Region")
            , xmin = 300
            , xmax = 400
            , ymax = 30
            , ymin = 25
            , fill = NA
            , col = "black") +
  geom_point(aes(col = factor(cyl)
                 , shape = factor(vs))
             , size = 3) +
  scale_color_brewer(name = "Cylinders"
                     , palette = "Set1") +
  scale_shape(name = "V/S") +
  scale_linetype_manual(values = c("High MPG" = "dotted"
                                   , "Other Region" = "dashed")
                        , name = "Region")

For some reason, you insist on using fill. Here is an approach that makes exactly the same plot as the first one in this answer, but uses fill as the aesthetic for each of the layers. If this isn't what you are insisting on, then I still have no idea what it is you are looking for.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                   , y = mpg)) +
  ##region for high mpg 
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "High MPG")
            , xmin = min(mtcars$disp)-5
            , ymax = max(mtcars$mpg) + 2
            , fill = "cyan"
            , xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp))
            , ymin = 25
            , alpha = 0.02
            , col = "black") + 
  ## test diff region
  geom_rect(aes(linetype = "Other Region")
            , xmin = 300
            , xmax = 400
            , ymax = 30
            , ymin = 25
            , fill = "yellow"
            , alpha = 0.02
            , col = "black") + 
  geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
  geom_point (aes(col = "4")
              , data = mtcars[mtcars$cyl == 4, ]
              , shape = 21
              , size = 2
              , fill = "red") +
  geom_point (aes(col = "6")
              , data = mtcars[mtcars$cyl == 6, ]
              , shape = 21
              , size = 2
              , fill = "orange") +
  geom_point (aes(col = "8")
              , data = mtcars[mtcars$cyl == 8, ]
              , shape = 21
              , size = 2
              , fill = "green") +
  scale_color_manual(values = c("4" = NA
                                , "6" = NA
                                , "8" = NA)
                     , name = "Cylinders"
                     , guide = guide_legend(override.aes = list(fill = c("red","orange","green")))) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("0" = "blue"
                               , "1" = "black"
                               , "cyan" = "cyan")
                    , name = "V/S"
                    , labels = c("0?", "1?", "High MPG")) +
  scale_linetype_manual(values = c("High MPG" = 0
                                   , "Other Region" = 0)
                        , name = "Region"
                        , guide = guide_legend(override.aes = list(fill = c("cyan", "yellow")
                                                                   , alpha = .4)))

Because I apparently can't leave this alone -- here is another approach using just fill for the aesthetic, then making separate legends for the single layers and stitching it all back together using cowplot loosely following this tutorial.

library(cowplot)
library(dplyr)

theme_set(theme_minimal())

allScales <-
  c("4" = "red"
    , "6" = "orange"
    , "8" = "green"
    , "0" = "blue"
    , "1" = "black"
    , "High MPG" = "cyan"
    , "Other Region" = "yellow")

mainPlot <-
  ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                     , y = mpg)) +
  ##region for high mpg 
  geom_rect(aes(fill = "High MPG")
            , xmin = min(mtcars$disp)-5
            , ymax = max(mtcars$mpg) + 2
            , xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp))
            , ymin = 25
            , alpha = 0.02) + 
  ## test diff region
  geom_rect(aes(fill = "Other Region")
            , xmin = 300
            , xmax = 400
            , ymax = 30
            , ymin = 25
            , alpha = 0.02) + 
  geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
  geom_point (aes(fill = factor(cyl)),shape = 21, size = 2) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = allScales)

vsLeg <-
  (ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                      , y = mpg)) +
     geom_point(aes(fill = factor(vs)),shape = 23, size = 8, alpha = 0.4) +
     scale_fill_manual(values = allScales
                       , name = "VS")
  ) %>%
  ggplotGrob %>%
  {.$grobs[[which(sapply(.$grobs, function(x) {x$name}) == "guide-box")]]}



cylLeg <-
  (ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                      , y = mpg)) +
     geom_point (aes(fill = factor(cyl)),shape = 21, size = 2) +
     scale_fill_manual(values = allScales
                       , name = "Cylinders")
  ) %>%
  ggplotGrob %>%
  {.$grobs[[which(sapply(.$grobs, function(x) {x$name}) == "guide-box")]]}


regionLeg <-
  (ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = disp
                      , y = mpg)) +
     geom_rect(aes(fill = "High MPG")
               , xmin = min(mtcars$disp)-5
               , ymax = max(mtcars$mpg) + 2
               , xmax = mean(range(mtcars$disp))
               , ymin = 25
               , alpha = 0.02) + 
     ## test diff region
     geom_rect(aes(fill = "Other Region")
               , xmin = 300
               , xmax = 400
               , ymax = 30
               , ymin = 25
               , alpha = 0.02) + 
     scale_fill_manual(values = allScales
                       , name = "Region"
                       , guide = guide_legend(override.aes = list(alpha = 0.4)))
  ) %>%
  ggplotGrob %>%
  {.$grobs[[which(sapply(.$grobs, function(x) {x$name}) == "guide-box")]]}


legendColumn <-
  plot_grid(
    # To make space at the top
    vsLeg + theme(legend.position = "none")
    # Plot the legends
    , vsLeg, regionLeg, cylLeg
    # To make space at the bottom
    , vsLeg + theme(legend.position = "none")
    , ncol = 1
    , align = "v")

plot_grid(mainPlot +
            theme(legend.position = "none")
          , legendColumn
          , rel_widths = c(1,.25))

As you can see, the outcome is nearly identical to the first way that I demonstrated how to do this, but now does not use any other aesthetics. I still don't understand why you think that distinction is important, but at least there is now another way to skin a cat. I can uses for the generalities of this approach (e.g., when multiple plots share a mix of color/symbol/linetype aesthetics and you want to use a single legend) but I see no value in using it here.