geom_raster


geom_raster is a layer for high performance rectangles rendering when all the cells are the same size.

Aesthetics

x, y required position aesthetics
alpha, fill classic aesthetics properties

Other Properties

interpolate if TRUE interpolate linearly, if FALSE – the default don't interpolate
hjust, vjust horizontal and vertical justification of the grob. Each justification value should be a number between 0 and 1. Defaults to 0.5 for both, centering each pixel over its data location

Similar Geometries

geom_rect, geom_tile, geom_polygon

Description and Details

Using the described geometry, you can insert a geometric object into your data visualization – raster layer that is defined by two positional aesthetic properties – x and y. You can find this geometry in the ribbon toolbar tab Layers, under the 3D button.

If you want to create a layer composed of squares, you can use geom_raster, geom_rect or geom_tile layer. The result of these geometries may look identical, but their definition is significantly different. If you need to draw rectangles very quickly and they have the same height and width, you can use the geom_raster layer. This geometry is defined by positional characteristics – x and y. From other aesthetic properties, you can work only with the alpha and fill aes.

We will show an example of use with the built-in faithful dataset. As positional variables we choose the waiting and eruptions variables. If we display these variables using the geom_point geometry, you will see that they represent a uniform grid. The example is shown in the following figure.

If we apply the geom_raster to this dataset, we must define also the fill aesthetic. For the fill aes we used the density variable. The result is shown in the next plot.

In addition to the described properties, you can set also the Interpolate check-box. If is set to FALSE, the raster geometry will be displayed "as is". If TRUE, individual rectangles will be interpolated and the fill will be in the visualization smoother.