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Getting Started with ekioplot

Source: vignettes/getting-started.Rmd
getting-started.Rmd

EKIO Theme

theme_ekio() applies EKIO’s visual identity to any ggplot2 plot. It builds on theme_minimal() with curated typography, spacing, and color choices.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point(color = ekio_pal("blue")["700"], size = 2.5) +
  labs(
    title = "Fuel Efficiency vs. Weight",
    subtitle = "Motor Trend Car Road Tests (1974)",
    x = "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    y = "Miles per Gallon"
  ) +
  theme_ekio()

The grid parameter controls which major grid lines are drawn:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point(color = ekio_pal("blue")["700"]) +
  theme_ekio(grid = "xy")

Plot surfaces

theme_ekio() supports three named surfaces: the default warm off-white, "white", and the cool white "cold". You can also supply a hex color. ekio_surface() resolves a named surface to its hex code for use elsewhere.

ekio_surface("cold")
#> [1] "#F6F7F8"

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point(color = ekio_pal("blue")["700"], size = 2.5) +
  theme_ekio(background = "#F6F7F8")

Color Palettes

ekioplot ships 28 palettes across seven groups. Use list_ekio_palettes() to explore them:

str(list_ekio_palettes())
#> List of 7
#>  $ accent     : chr [1:3] "gold" "accent_blue" "accent_orange"
#>  $ brand      : chr "ekio_brand"
#>  $ academy    : chr [1:2] "yoro_blue" "yoro_green"
#>  $ categorical: chr [1:6] "full" "full_muted" "full_light" "spectrum_light" ...
#>  $ sequential : chr [1:8] "blue" "gray" "stone" "teal" ...
#>  $ diverging  : chr [1:4] "purple_orange" "blue_red" "teal_orange" "purple_green"
#>  $ scientific : chr [1:4] "okabe_ito" "viridis" "inferno" "plasma"

Access any palette with ekio_pal():

ekio_pal("full")

ekio_pal("cool3")

ekio_pal("accent_blue", n = 5)

ekio_pal("blue", n = 5)

Palette types

  • Categorical: full, full_muted, full_light, spectrum_light, cool3, cool4
  • Brand: ekio_brand for EKIO identity assets, not general data visualization
  • Academy: yoro_blue, yoro_green for EKIO Academy tutorials and books
  • Scientific: okabe_ito, viridis, inferno, plasma
  • Sequential: blue, gray, stone, teal, green, orange, red, purple
  • Accent: gold, accent_blue, accent_orange
  • Diverging: purple_orange, blue_red, teal_orange, purple_green

accent_blue and accent_orange return four colors by default. Set n from 2 to 6 to match the number of series while retaining the accent as the first color. gold remains a fixed three-color named palette.

ekio_pal() displays a swatch when printed:

ekio_pal("full")

Scale Functions

ekioplot provides ggplot2 scales for both discrete and continuous data.

Discrete scales 

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_color_ekio_d("full") +
  labs(color = "Cylinders") +
  theme_ekio(grid = "xy")

Continuous scales

Sequential and diverging palettes work with continuous data:

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg, color = hp)) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_color_ekio_c("blue") +
  labs(color = "Horsepower") +
  theme_ekio(grid = "xy")

Fill variants are available as scale_fill_ekio_d() and scale_fill_ekio_c().

Recipe Functions

Recipe functions are high-level wrappers that create complete, publication-ready plots with smart defaults.

Histogram 

ekio_histogram(mtcars, mpg)

Bar plot 

cyl_counts <- as.data.frame(table(cyl = mtcars$cyl))
names(cyl_counts)[2] <- "n"
ekio_barplot(cyl_counts, cyl, n)

Scatter plot 

ekio_scatterplot(mtcars, wt, mpg, color = factor(cyl))

Area plot 

economic_series <- subset(
  ggplot2::economics_long,
  variable %in% c("pce", "psavert", "uempmed")
)
ekio_areaplot(economic_series, date, value01, fill = variable)

Smart aesthetic detection

Recipe functions automatically detect whether the color/fill argument is:

  • Missing — uses EKIO blue as default
  • A color string (e.g., "steelblue") — uses that color directly
  • A variable — maps it and applies the appropriate EKIO scale
ekio_histogram(mtcars, mpg, fill = "coral")

Brand Scales

Every brand color is reached through ekio_pal(). The brand scales — "blue", "gray", "stone", "teal", "green", "orange", "red", and "purple" — are nine-step ramps running light to dark, named by shade. All sit on one lightness spine, so a given shade carries the same visual weight in every family:

ekio_pal("gray")

Position and shade are aligned by construction, so element i is always shade i * 100. Index whichever way reads better:

ekio_pal("blue")["700"]
#> [1] "#1E3A5F"
ekio_pal("blue")[7]
#> [1] "#1E3A5F"

Because these are the same objects used for continuous fills, asking for fewer colors interpolates across the whole ramp rather than returning the lightest few:

ekio_pal("blue", n = 3)