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Use Axis Text Wisely

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Your Turn

Make your y axis labels show up as nicely formatted percents using the percent_format() function.

Learn More

Dana Siedel gave a nice talk at rstudio::conf 2020 about the scales package that is well worth a 20-minute watch!

Have any questions? Put them below and we will help you out!

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Catherine Roller White

Catherine Roller White

May 10, 2021

Hi there. How can I change the font of my data labels to match the rest of the font? I'm using a font called "Sylfaen." It's showing up for my axis labels but I'm not sure where to specify that font for data labels. Thank you!

enrollment_by_race_ethnicity %>% 
  filter(race_ethnicity == "Hispanic or Latino") %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = year,
             y = percent,
             group = district)) +
  geom_line(color = "lightgray",
            alpha = 0.5) +
  geom_line(data = highlight_district,
            inherit.aes = TRUE,
            color = "blue") +
  geom_text(data = highlight_district,
            inherit.aes = TRUE,
            aes(label = percent_display),
            hjust = c(1, 0)) +
  scale_y_continuous(label = percent_format(),
                     limits =c(0,1)) +
  theme_ipsum(axis_title_size = 0,
              base_family = "Sylfaen",
              grid = "XY")

David Keyes

David Keyes

May 11, 2021

To adjust the font on data labels, you need to add the font name in the geom_text() function as follows:

geom_text(family = "Sylfaen")

I also made a quick video to show how you can set the default font for all instances of geom_text().

Catherine Roller White

Catherine Roller White

May 11, 2021

Fantastic -- thank you so much!