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Legend Positioning

Gilles Colling

2026-01-07

Overview

ggguides provides position helpers that handle legend placement without requiring knowledge of ggplot2’s theme system. Each function sets the appropriate combination of legend.position, legend.justification, and legend.box.just to achieve proper alignment.

Basic Positioning

Left and Right

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  labs(color = "Cylinders")

p + legend_left() + ggtitle("Left")
p + legend_right() + ggtitle("Right")

Top and Bottom

When placing legends at the top or bottom, the legend is automatically oriented horizontally:

p + legend_top() + ggtitle("Top")
p + legend_bottom() + ggtitle("Bottom")

Alignment with Titles

Use the align_to parameter to control how the legend aligns with the plot. The difference is most visible when there’s a y-axis label:

p_labeled <- p + labs(title = "Fuel Economy", y = "Weight (1000 lbs)")

# Default: align to panel (legend aligns with the plot area)
p_labeled + legend_top() + ggtitle("Panel alignment (default)")

# Align to full plot (legend spans title/axis labels too)
p_labeled + legend_top(align_to = "plot") + ggtitle("Plot alignment")

Inside Positioning

legend_inside() places the legend within the plot panel. You can use either coordinate values or named shortcuts.

Using Shortcuts

Available shortcuts: "topright", "topleft", "bottomright", "bottomleft", "center"

p + legend_inside(position = "topright") + ggtitle("Top right")
p + legend_inside(position = "bottomleft") + ggtitle("Bottom left")

Using Coordinates

For precise control, specify x/y coordinates (0-1 scale) and justification:

p + legend_inside(x = 0.95, y = 0.95, just = c("right", "top"))

Adding Background

Inside legends often need a background for readability:

p + legend_inside(
  position = "topright",
  background = "#FFF3E0",
  border = "#FF9800"
)

Direction Control

Horizontal and Vertical

Control legend entry direction independently of position:

p + legend_horizontal() + ggtitle("Horizontal")
p + legend_vertical() + ggtitle("Vertical")

Combining Direction and Position

p + legend_right() + legend_horizontal()

Removing the Legend

p + legend_none()

Summary

Function Position Auto-Direction
legend_left() Left of panel Vertical
legend_right() Right of panel Vertical
legend_top() Above panel Horizontal
legend_bottom() Below panel Horizontal
legend_inside() Inside panel Unchanged
legend_none() Hidden N/A

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