theme_economist: ggplot color theme based on the Economist

In ggthemes: Extra Themes, Scales and Geoms for 'ggplot2'

ggplot color theme based on the Economist

Description

A theme that approximates the style of charts in The Economist.

Usage

theme_economist(
  base_size = 10,
  base_family = "sans",
  horizontal = TRUE,
  dkpanel = deprecated()
)

theme_economist_white(
  base_size = 10,
  base_family = "sans",
  gray_bg = deprecated(),
  horizontal = TRUE
)

Arguments

base_size	base font size, given in pts.
base_family	base font family
horizontal	logical Horizontal gridlines? If FALSE, vertical gridlines are drawn instead, for use with coord_flip().
dkpanel	'r lifecycle::badge("deprecated")' The darker panel was a feature of the pre-2017 design and no longer has any effect.
gray_bg	'r lifecycle::badge("deprecated")' No longer has any effect.

Details

This follows the chart design The Economist introduced in 2017 and still publishes today: a white plot area on a pale ground, light horizontal gridlines only, a black x-axis baseline with tick marks below it, and no y-axis rule or ticks. Use scale_colour_economist() with it.

Two conventions of the house style cannot be expressed as theme elements, and have to be set on the plot itself:

• The Economist puts the y axis on the right. Use scale_y_continuous(position = "right").

• Charts are tagged with a small red rectangle above the title. Draw it with annotate() or grid.rect() in "Econ red", which is ggthemes_data$economist$main row "econ red".

The Economist sets charts in "Econ Sans", which is not publicly available. Any narrow humanist sans is a reasonable substitute; with the extrafont package, "Roboto Condensed" or "Fira Sans Condensed" are close.

Value

An object of class theme().

References

• The Economist

• The Economist visual styleguide, version 1.2, 4 May 2017.

Examples

library("ggplot2")

p <- ggplot(mtcars) +
     geom_point(aes(x = wt, y = mpg, colour = factor(gear))) +
     facet_wrap(~am) +
     # The Economist puts the y-axis labels on the right-hand side
     scale_y_continuous(position = "right") +
     labs(
       title = "Heavier, thirstier",
       subtitle = "Fuel economy v weight, by number of forward gears",
       caption = "Source: Motor Trend, 1974"
     )

## Standard
p + theme_economist() +
  scale_colour_economist()

# Vertical gridlines, for use with coord_flip()
p + theme_economist(horizontal = FALSE) +
    scale_colour_economist() +
    coord_flip()

## Ordered data uses one hue's equal-lightness steps instead
ggplot(mtcars) +
  geom_point(aes(x = wt, y = mpg, colour = hp)) +
  scale_colour_economist_c(hue = "blue") +
  theme_economist()

## Not run: 

## The Economist sets charts in "Econ Sans", which is not publicly
## available. Any narrow humanist sans is a reasonable substitute, if it is
## installed on your system.
p + theme_economist(base_family = "Roboto Condensed") +
    scale_colour_economist()


## End(Not run)

ggthemes documentation built on Oct. 4, 2026, 1:06 a.m.