By default, ggplot2 produces plots with a grey background. How do I change the

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Editorial Team

Asked: May 23, 20262026-05-23T21:59:13+00:00 2026-05-23T21:59:13+00:00

By default, ggplot2 produces plots with a grey background. How do I change the color of the background of the plot?

For example, a plot produced by the following code:

library(ggplot2)
myplot<-ggplot(data=data.frame(a=c(1,2,3), b=c(2,3,4)), aes(x=a, y=b)) + geom_line()
myplot

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-05-23T21:59:13+00:00

Editorial Team

To change the panel’s background color, use the following code:

myplot + theme(panel.background = element_rect(fill = 'green', colour = 'red'))

To change the color of the plot (but not the color of the panel), you can do:

myplot + theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill = 'green', colour = 'red'))

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