Question

I am trying to make a plot in R that has a portion of the plot grey to emphasize this area. Unlike other examples, I don’t want to color an area under a plot, but instead color an area on a plot starting at one area and going to the end of the graph. When I try to use rect() or polygon() it obscures the plots I want to emphasize.

For example:

x_mean <- c(1, 2, 3, 4)
y_mean <- c(1, 1, 1, 1)

y_max <- c(4, 4, 4, 4)
y_min <- c(-4, -4, -4, -4)


x_shade <- c(2, 3, 4)

y_max_shade <- c(4, 4, 4)
y_min_shade <- c(-4, -4, -4)

plot(x=rep(x_mean, 3), y=c(y_mean, y_max, y_min), bty='n', type="n" )
arrows(x0=x_mean, y0=y_min, x1=x_mean, y1=y_max, length=0)
points( x=x_mean, y=y_mean, pch=16)

This will plot 4 lines on the graph. How do I draw a grey box in the background from the 2nd line to the end of the plot?

Answer 1

Just so that you’re left with more than just a comment, here’s a possible solution:

plot(x=rep(x_mean, 3), y=c(y_mean, y_max, y_min), bty='n', type="n" )
rect(2,-4,4,4,col = rgb(0.5,0.5,0.5,1/4))
arrows(x0=x_mean, y0=y_min, x1=x_mean, y1=y_max, length=0)
points( x=x_mean, y=y_mean, pch=16)

Note that I also demonstrated how to use alpha blending in the color specification (using rgb). This can also be useful for this sort of thing. Try moving the rect line to the end, and notice that the results still look ok, because the fill color is partially transparent.