Issues with creating a custom ggplot2 theme for multiple plots with different scales in R
I'm working on a personal project and I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I've been struggling with this for a few days now and could really use some help. I'm trying to create a custom theme for ggplot2 to maintain a consistent look across multiple plots in my R project. However, I'm facing issues when some plots have different scales, which causes inconsistency in the legends and axis labels. Here's a simplified version of my approach: ```R library(ggplot2) # Custom theme function custom_theme <- function() { theme_minimal() + theme( text = element_text(size = 12), legend.position = 'bottom', strip.background = element_rect(fill = 'lightblue') ) } # Generate some example data set.seed(42) data1 <- data.frame( x = 1:10, y = rnorm(10) ) data2 <- data.frame( x = 1:10, y = rnorm(10, mean = 5) ) # Create first plot p1 <- ggplot(data1, aes(x = x, y = y)) + geom_line() + custom_theme() + labs(title = 'Plot 1') # Create second plot with a different scale p2 <- ggplot(data2, aes(x = x, y = y)) + geom_line() + custom_theme() + labs(title = 'Plot 2') # Arrange plots library(gridExtra) grid.arrange(p1, p2, ncol = 2) ``` I noticed that the legends are overlapping, and the axis labels are not aligning properly when I display these plots side-by-side. Additionally, the colors are not consistent across both plots, even though I'm using the same theme function. I've tried to explicitly set the limits with `scale_x_continuous()` and `scale_y_continuous()`, but that didn't help. I also ensured that the color palette was uniform using `scale_color_manual()`, yet the color inconsistency persists. Here’s what I’ve done: ```R # Setting the same scale across plots p1 <- p1 + scale_y_continuous(limits = c(-3, 3)) p2 <- p2 + scale_y_continuous(limits = c(-3, 8)) # Not ideal, but needed for data ``` The plots are supposed to represent different datasets but should visually maintain a common theme. Is there a better way to handle the theme application and ensure the legends and labels align correctly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Is there a better approach? I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. This is my first time working with R 3.9. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this.