plot(p) and plot(ggplot_gtable(ggplot_build(p))) don't seem to give same output when plot background is transparent

Question

I have the following R ggplot code:

require(ggplot2)
require(ggthemes)

df <- data.frame(x=1:10, y=5*(1:10))

p <- ggplot(df, aes(x,y)) +
   geom_point() +
   theme_few() +
   theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill='transparent', colour=NA), legend.position='top')

pdf('test.pdf', width=5, height=2)

plot(p)

plot(ggplot_gtable(ggplot_build(p)))

But I do get two different figures:

I like the first figure (i.e without the background grid outside panel area). However, I also need to use ggplot_build() for some other processing. Could you please help?

Answer 1

You could copy what ggplot2::print.ggplot does more directly. This seems to work.

pdf('test.pdf', width=5, height=2)

plot(p)

grid::grid.newpage()
grid::grid.draw(ggplot_gtable(ggplot_build(p)))

dev.off()