Can ggplot theme formatting be saved as an object?

Question

TL;DR: How do I save the plotting axis text and sizes and et cetera an object to make my code shorter? Say for example I wanted to plot different data with potentially different geoms but use the same axis text sizing and titles. It would look like this in made up code ``` ggplot(data = df, aes(x = x, y = y) + geom_line() + ylab("my y axis") + xlab("my x axis") + opts(title = "my title") + theme(axis.text=element_text(size=20), axis.title=element_text(size=14,face="bold")) ggplot(data = new_df, aes(x = whatever, y = something) + geom_anythingelse() + ylab("my y axis") + xlab("my x axis") + opts(title = "my title") + theme(axis.text=element_text(size=20), axis.title=element_text(size=14,face="bold")) #... ``` How or can I save ``` my_theme <- ylab("my y axis") + xlab("my x axis") + opts(title = "my title") + theme(axis.text=element_text(size=20), axis.title=element_text(size=14,face="bold")) ``` as its own object to add to ggplot when I like. Is ggplot flexible enough to accommodate my…

Accepted Answer

You can make a theme object without any problems, e.g:

```
mytheme<-theme(panel.background=element_rect(colour="green"))
```

It is even easier, if this is your standard theme to type

```
old_theme<- theme_update(panel.background=element_rect(colour="green"))
```

In the former case you write:

```
ggplot(...)+mytheme
```

while in the latter, because your custom theme is now the standard theme, it is only necessary to type:

```
ggplot(...)
```

Can ggplot theme formatting be saved as an object?

Solution

Problem