Changing the legend title in ggplot

Question

I have made this scatter plot with the help of ggplot2:

ggplot(data = mtcars,aes(x=mpg,y=disp,col=factor(cyl)))+geom_point()

I would want to change the title of legend from 'factor(cyl)' to cylinder

Answer 1

You just need to add one more command to your code:

ggplot(data = mtcars,aes(x=mpg,y=disp,col=factor(cyl)))+geom_point()+labs(col="cylinder")

Comments

Dude, you are a genius!!!

Nobody have explained this, and this is the only one on the internet that works!.

Explanation --- look at your plot to see what the legend is referring then name it accordingly. In the above graph, the legend is color by factor of cyl. Bharani changed the labs(color = "cylinder").

Thanks man!

---

Hey @Ken,Thanks for the explanation, makes the solution more clear. It would be great if you post this as an answer so that it's more readable and understandable for others.

Answer 2

Try something like this:

library(reshape2)
dfm <- melt(df, id = "TY")
# creating a scatterplot
ggplot(data = dfm, aes(x = TY, y = value, color = variable)) + 
  geom_point(size=5) +
  labs(title = "Temp\n", x = "TY [°C]", y = "Txxx", color = "Title\n") +
  scale_color_manual(labels = c("T999", "T888"), values = c("blue", "red")) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(size = 14), axis.title.x = element_text(size = 16),
        axis.text.y = element_text(size = 14), axis.title.x = element_text(size = 16),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, face = "bold", color = "red"))

Answer 3

If you only want to change the legend text labels and not the colours from ggplot's default palette, you can use scale_color_hue(labels = c("T999", "T888")) instead of scale_color_manual().

Answer 4

Try this:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=mpg, y=disp, size=hp, col=as.factor(cyl), shape=as.factor(gear))) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(x="miles per gallon", y="displacement", size="horsepower", 
       col="# of cylinders", shape="# of gears")

Answer 5

ggplot(data = mtcars,aes(x=mpg,y=disp,col=factor(cyl)))+geom_point()+labs(col="cylinder")

look at your plot to see what the legend is referring then name it accordingly. In the above graph, the legend is color by factor of cyl. Change the labs(color = "cylinder"). 

Answer 6

To change legend position:

p + theme(legend.position="top") 
p + theme(legend.position="bottom")

Answer 7

Try this:

# legend title
p + theme(legend.title = element_text(colour="blue", size=10, face="bold"))
# legend labels
p + theme(legend.text = element_text(colour="blue", size=10, face="bold"))

Answer 8

Chnage background color of the legend box:

# legend box background color p + theme(legend.background = element_rect(fill="lightblue", size=0.5, linetype="solid")) 

p + theme(legend.background = element_rect(fill="lightblue", size=0.5, linetype="solid", colour ="darkblue"))

Answer 9

You can use the function labs(). Its used to modify axis, legend and plot labels. 

Good labels are critical for making your plots accessible to a wider audience. Ensure the axis and legend labels display the full variable name. Use the plot title and subtitle to explain the main findings. It's common to use the caption to provide information about the data source.

Have a look at the r documentations for detailed explanation. 

Answer 10

Example :

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, colour = cyl)) + geom_point()
p + labs(colour = "Cylinders")
p + labs(x = "New x label")

# The plot title appears at the top-left, with the subtitle
# display in smaller text underneath it
p + labs(title = "New plot title")
p + labs(title = "New plot title", subtitle = "A subtitle")

# The caption appears in the bottom-right, and is often used for
# sources, notes or copyright
p + labs(caption = "(based on data from ...)")

Answer 11

Hi, you can also try guides() to change the legend title

Try below code - 

ggplot(data = mtcars,aes(x=mpg,y=disp,col=factor(cyl)))+geom_point() + guides(color = guide_legend(title = "Cylinder"))

Hope it helps!