{ggannotate} is a point-and-click tool to help you put your annotations exactly where you want them to go on your {ggplot2} plots.

The last step in data visualisation - adding annotations - is one of the most important, but it can be hard to get annotations in exactly the right place. With {ggannotate}, you interactively annotate ggplots using a Shiny-based RStudio add-in.

{ggannotate} is not yet on CRAN. It will be submitted to CRAN when it is more stable and feature-complete.

Install from GitHub:

remotes::install_github("mattcowgill/ggannotate")

Create a ggplot2 object, then call ggannotate():

library(ggplot2)
library(ggannotate)

p <- ggplot(mtcars, 
            aes(x = wt, y = mpg)) + 
  geom_point() 

ggannotate(p)

If you invoke ggannotate() without specifying a plot, it will use the last plot you modified or created, using ggplot2::last_plot():

ggplot(mtcars, 
            aes(x = wt, y = mpg)) + 
  geom_point() 

ggannotate()

You can also use the RStudio add-in to annotate your last_plot() with ggannotate().

Each of these options will launch a Shiny app. Add your annotation(s) and click ‘copy code’ to copy the annotation code to the clipboard. Then paste the copied code in your script and you’re done!

You can adjust the size of the plot in the Shiny app so you can set it to be the same as your intended output.

{ggannotate} is still in active development, in an experimental phase. Aspects of the functionality are quite likely to change as the package evolves.

Suggestions are welcome (please file a GitHub issue). The UI will change substantially.