Creating mixed label types in merged legend R ggplot2

Question

I have a chart.

As you can see, I have a legend to the right. The legend is nearly what I'm trying for, but not quite. I would like to remove the black line from the closings label but keep the yellow background. Preferably, I'd like to keep the black border on the yellow area in the chart, but having no border would be okay. For the price label, is there a way to turn the border to black, or remove it completely as well, while keeping the green line overlaid on the white background?

Pretty much, the chart is perfect, but the legend needs to be tweaked to show a solid yellow box and a second box with a green line only. How can this be done?

I looked at: How to merge color, line style and shape legends in ggplot and Remove lines from color and fill legends but both situations are a bit too different from mine.

Here's my code:

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(data = df, aes(x = Date)) + 
     geom_area(aes(y = Closings, color = "closings", fill = "closings")) + 
     geom_line(aes(y = (Price * 0.001333333) + 83.33333, color = "price", fill = "price"), size = 1.5) + 
     scale_fill_manual(values = c("yellow", "white"),
                       name  = NULL,
                       breaks = c("closings", "price"),
                       labels = c("Closings", "Median Price")) +
     scale_color_manual(values = c("black", "green3"),
                        name  = NULL,
                        breaks = c("closings", "price"),
                        labels = c("Closings", "Median Price"))

Here's my data:

df <- structure(list(Date = structure(c(13879, 13910, 13939, 13970, 
14000, 14031, 14061, 14092, 14123, 14153, 14184, 14214, 14245, 
14276, 14304, 14335, 14365, 14396, 14426, 14457, 14488, 14518, 
14549, 14579, 14610, 14641, 14669, 14700, 14730, 14761, 14791, 
14822, 14853, 14883, 14914, 14944, 14975, 15006, 15034, 15065, 
15095, 15126, 15156, 15187, 15218, 15248, 15279, 15309, 15340, 
15371, 15400, 15431, 15461, 15492, 15522, 15553, 15584, 15614, 
15645, 15675, 15706, 15737, 15765, 15796, 15826, 15857, 15887, 
15918, 15949, 15979, 16010, 16040, 16071, 16102, 16130, 16161, 
16191, 16222, 16252, 16283, 16314, 16344, 16375, 16405, 16436, 
16467, 16495, 16526, 16556, 16587, 16617, 16648, 16679, 16709, 
16740, 16770, 16801, 16832, 16861, 16892, 16922, 16953, 16983, 
17014, 17045, 17075, 17106, 17136, 17167, 17198, 17226, 17257, 
17287, 17318, 17348, 17379, 17410, 17440, 17471, 17501, 17532, 
17563, 17591, 17622, 17652, 17683, 17713, 17744, 17775, 17805, 
17836, 17866), class = "Date"), Closings = c(250.156142028049, 
278.357976437638, 255.121081362418, 283.702250084887, 283.28935185905, 
288.313623559134, 325.000699725773, 298.376264701902, 313.84570882404, 
305.210255253672, 325.167893489321, 306.987145839372, 346.917797496066, 
382.32544168682, 366.043189727097, 395.528885200985, 413.192739388789, 
436.198713316806, 448.857236597506, 458.12844469499, 467.934456709454, 
531.718551380374, 489.036029651921, 424.145436933803, 480.771931684385, 
424.642009395637, 456.026852374217, 481.774827399362, 438.07838530662, 
497.787244232307, 378.461055105199, 406.736455324577, 417.379172567169, 
421.576783421227, 405.028778695547, 478.191650757529, 496.894754901524, 
478.609660794221, 483.529758706635, 424.061194075769, 476.069214422593, 
436.292678831308, 482.080852838583, 471.208298573889, 521.57277412691, 
494.662515658451, 502.577814463075, 545.566636089223, 561.365872327693, 
556.269339067741, 517.116503763691, 524.479775060783, 465.628788487937, 
439.644235427938, 470.021446447943, 461.632774011286, 474.547410701393, 
499.253296310819, 527.224782494392, 530.539320943973, 462.958529914718, 
513.983733770454, 501.597790930051, 462.552111079358, 484.16759628069, 
466.85148846189, 521.003988379343, 564.00372012142, 488.49423201669, 
519.494492425345, 504.576220483446, 506.872226824766, 465.856317160947, 
489.538676300571, 484.663919536111, 506.956908536912, 492.454946762983, 
487.778557225938, 449.629197246976, 537.191437830848, 464.109069017065, 
470.628629323684, 531.051855365986, 516.884471679629, 504.345731330288, 
508.948061702574, 532.078717023471, 536.566373647872, 546.867242773361, 
537.462592066804, 559.77142834591, 481.207575398739, 527.649185787963, 
542.34239711043, 468.577086880184, 509.001969646315, 554.596640239335, 
490.868639064067, 543.728816654576, 565.291400229651, 541.137354666698, 
544.001727012899, 548.287267385355, 507.783353384915, 593.536224116433, 
527.284368523773, 551.142049002881, 554.652683077533, 510.866876699988, 
505.764845738803, 527.46665705407, 541.968694157968, 603.45118314086, 
635.9132068477, 595.556380657524, 637.053092773872, 584.306260267669, 
558.432266359433, 549.508951330324, 539.224102652134, 536.229486076422, 
560.825854108347, 541.44659261869, 504.134585438331, 500.388810459863, 
491.701638680997, 500.007728524597, 471.598923505976, 457.300388732037, 
455.337353120735, 486.826956528693, 442.941766916031), Price = c(292992.425757596, 
282232.785900843, 275389.834275573, 274500.109731967, 264944.862222162, 
261706.592852482, 250524.250644742, 246374.074631546, 236004.574847187, 
228285.291130621, 220701.939675238, 216305.664446331, 205035.996752354, 
203592.420113099, 199684.648674524, 187699.916943355, 179863.305040014, 
181980.437767862, 179178.492676046, 176522.983603004, 183127.367236221, 
177936.314209299, 175390.86606603, 176969.80397964, 176026.327673378, 
175530.448632218, 176299.76511108, 179692.051095226, 178283.932334544, 
170194.461549687, 179486.464906891, 176025.94108693, 168185.697003624, 
173020.834245636, 169824.68021547, 162447.460927453, 166098.217547117, 
163039.500372587, 162340.60264281, 156001.800941735, 150449.501999813, 
152175.301772514, 148901.922981959, 149962.9572839, 148757.390734935, 
147836.111243281, 148837.237231223, 154563.483637924, 144609.002728569, 
148631.456513129, 152049.688131618, 152688.38636814, 162291.648555056, 
165499.626692532, 164806.348626159, 172475.342634516, 177480.532304788, 
180502.70381349, 181780.140013274, 186672.049412382, 190398.174597777, 
195210.819465264, 198620.803584801, 209688.172883621, 215301.05071958, 
216278.952605624, 212767.347684501, 217001.945710031, 225505.722191665, 
216130.134875928, 224376.4250221, 230125.402991916, 230187.01087712, 
236624.460163686, 230666.364352779, 234136.190763021, 235386.840124055, 
244509.870077768, 245311.76865067, 247252.467065234, 241738.590522588, 
263681.322834618, 262277.080161105, 264874.07429538, 265297.097202708, 
266977.787381232, 273185.299005992, 274533.498265018, 279723.711000575, 
275027.717854781, 283521.001985551, 287024.425436969, 287516.68750296, 
281696.446951941, 293216.445551162, 295730.559661054, 289153.384805077, 
292289.800405012, 298643.411790304, 297201.252740491, 304510.476947687, 
307320.451499811, 307592.951343233, 307256.835722165, 313926.00850201, 
311359.700058026, 310415.82927781, 308216.275525795, 314244.98505743, 
321236.469132338, 320365.61567768, 326585.503708381, 332923.652409942, 
334522.324923418, 345243.080421173, 348985.167214431, 341145.875527968, 
350041.52839689, 355126.587056377, 355585.619798078, 366778.863859834, 
370153.357953846, 375567.043369724, 375540.363471684, 372658.306591577, 
379744.740611563, 381864.717432884, 371316.907731576, 381175.129326891, 
383818.35305956, 380150.276063892, 375297.84684425)), row.names = c(NA, 
-132L), class = "data.frame")

Calum You Calum You · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-08T01:02:47

Here's an attempt using the first few rows of your table, which at least removes the line from the Closings legend.

Main change is move the black border on the geom_area outside of aes, this will mean that it won't produce a legend line. More minor trick is that since you are using a manual scale with manual values anyway, you can skip specifying labels by just making the breaks your desired labels. The background of the Price legend will now be the background of the chart, which you can modify with themes. Getting the black border on the Price legend might be a bit more tricky, since it is meaningful in a ggplot2 legend.

library(tidyverse)
df <- structure(list(Date = structure(c(13879, 13910, 13939, 13970, 14000, 14031, 14061, 14092, 14123, 14153), class = "Date"), Closings = c(250.156142028049, 278.357976437638, 255.121081362418, 283.702250084887, 283.28935185905, 288.313623559134, 325.000699725773, 298.376264701902, 313.84570882404, 305.210255253672), Price = c(292992.425757596, 282232.785900843, 275389.834275573, 274500.109731967, 264944.862222162, 261706.592852482, 250524.250644742, 246374.074631546, 236004.574847187, 228285.291130621)), row.names = c(NA, -10L), class = "data.frame")
ggplot(df, aes(x = Date)) +
  geom_area(aes(y = Closings, fill = "Closings"), colour = "black") +
  geom_line(aes(y = Price * 0.001333333, colour = "Price")) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = "yellow", breaks = "Closings", name = NULL) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = "green", breaks = "Price", name = NULL)

^{Created on 2019-02-07 by the reprex package (v0.2.1)}

Creating mixed label types in merged legend R ggplot2

1 Answers