Getting Started with ggastrum

Overview

ggastrum provides custom ggplot2 themes and color palettes designed for academic publications and presentations. The package includes two themes (theme_t2m() and theme_solaris()) and five color palettes (solaris, viridis, inferno, grayscale, doplar).

Quick Start

The simplest way to use the package is with set_theme(), which configures the global ggplot2 theme and color palette:

# Set up the theme (uses solaris palette by default)
set_theme()

# Create a plot - theme and colors are applied automatically
ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
 geom_point(size = 4) +
 labs(
    title = "Fuel Efficiency by Weight",
    x = "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    y = "Miles per Gallon",
    color = "Cylinders"
  )

Solaris Theme

For a warmer aesthetic with a cream-colored background, use theme_solaris():

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point(size = 4) +
  scale_color_solaris_d() +
  theme_solaris() +
  labs(
    title = "Fuel Efficiency by Weight",
    subtitle = "Solaris theme with cream background",
    x = "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    y = "Miles per Gallon",
    color = "Cylinders"
  )

Font Configuration

The package bundles Open Sans, Lato, and Source Sans 3 fonts for offline use. To enable custom fonts, set set_font = TRUE:

# Use bundled Open Sans font (default)
set_theme(set_font = TRUE)

# Use Lato instead
set_theme(set_font = TRUE, base_family = "Lato")

# Use Source Sans 3
set_theme(set_font = TRUE, base_family = "Source Sans 3")

Learn More

For more detailed documentation, see the following articles:

• Color Palettes: Compare viridis, inferno, grayscale, and solaris palettes for discrete and continuous scales
• Theme Comparison: Side-by-side comparison of theme_t2m() and theme_solaris(), plus print optimization
• Base R Plots: Using text2map.theme palettes with base R graphics
• Network Visualization: Using themes and palettes with ggraph network plots