Place Legend on the Right with Proper Alignment

A one-liner to position the legend on the right side of the plot. Slides the legend along the right rail via justification, and right-aligns multiple legend boxes via legend.box.just.

Usage

legend_right(justification = "center", by = NULL)

Arguments

justification

Where the legend sits along the right edge. One of "top", "center", "bottom", or a numeric value in [0, 1] (0 = bottom, 1 = top). Default is "center". Only used when by is NULL.

by

Optional aesthetic name (character) to position only a specific legend. When specified, uses per-guide positioning via guide_legend(position = "right"). Requires ggplot2 >= 3.5.0. Common values: "colour", "fill", "size".

Value

A ggplot2 theme object (when by is NULL) or a guides specification (when by is specified).

Details

justification slides the legend along the right rail: "top" / "center" / "bottom" or a number in [0, 1]. For per-guide justification, use legend_style(by = ..., justification = ...).

See also

legend_left, legend_top, legend_bottom, legend_inside

Examples

library(ggplot2)

# Basic usage
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  legend_right()

# Pin legend to the bottom of the right rail
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  legend_right(justification = "bottom")

# Position only the size legend on the right
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = factor(cyl), size = hp)) +
  geom_point() +
  legend_bottom(by = "colour") +
  legend_right(by = "size")