ggplot2 legend to bottom and horizontal

RGgplot2

R Problem Overview


How can I move a ggplot2 legend to the bottom of the plot and turn it horizontally?

Sample code:

library(reshape2) # for melt
df <- melt(outer(1:4, 1:4), varnames = c("X1", "X2"))
p1 <- ggplot(df, aes(X1, X2)) + geom_tile(aes(fill = value))
p1 + scale_fill_continuous(guide = guide_legend())

Desired (approximate) outcome: enter image description here

R Solutions


Solution 1 - R

If you want to move the position of the legend please use the following code:

library(reshape2) # for melt
df <- melt(outer(1:4, 1:4), varnames = c("X1", "X2"))
p1 <- ggplot(df, aes(X1, X2)) + geom_tile(aes(fill = value))
p1 + scale_fill_continuous(guide = guide_legend()) +
    theme(legend.position="bottom")

This should give you the desired result. Legend at bottom

Solution 2 - R

Here is how to create the desired outcome:

library(reshape2); library(tidyverse)
melt(outer(1:4, 1:4), varnames = c("X1", "X2")) %>%
ggplot() + 
  geom_tile(aes(X1, X2, fill = value)) + 
  scale_fill_continuous(guide = guide_legend()) +
  theme(legend.position="bottom",
        legend.spacing.x = unit(0, 'cm'))+
  guides(fill = guide_legend(label.position = "bottom"))

Created on 2019-12-07 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)


Edit: no need for these imperfect options anymore, but I'm leaving them here for reference.

Two imperfect options that don't give you exactly what you were asking for, but pretty close (will at least put the colours together).

library(reshape2); library(tidyverse)
df <- melt(outer(1:4, 1:4), varnames = c("X1", "X2"))
p1 <- ggplot(df, aes(X1, X2)) + geom_tile(aes(fill = value))
p1 + scale_fill_continuous(guide = guide_legend()) +
 theme(legend.position="bottom", legend.direction="vertical")

p1 + scale_fill_continuous(guide = "colorbar") + theme(legend.position="bottom")

Created on 2019-02-28 by the reprex package (v0.2.1)

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionTyler RinkerView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - RShreyas KarnikView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - RArthur YipView Answer on Stackoverflow