Prevent geom_points and their corresponding labels from overlapping

Question

Thanks for the suggested duplicate, this is however not only about the labels, but is also about adjusting the points themselves so they do not overlap.

have a quick look at the plot below...

I need the coloured points, and their corresponding labels, to never overlap. They should be clustered together and all visible, perhaps with some indication that they are spaced and not 100% accurate, perhaps some sort of call out? Open to suggestions on that.

I've tried adding position = 'jitter' to both geom_point and geom_text, but that doesn't seem to be working (assume it is only for small overlaps?) Ideas?

# TEST DATA
srvc_data <- data.frame(
  Key = 1:20,
  X = sample(40:80, 20, replace = T),
  Y = sample(30:65, 20, replace = T)
)
srvc_data$Z <- with(srvc_data,abs(X-Y))


t1<-theme(                              
  plot.background = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.major = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
  panel.border = element_blank(), 
  panel.background = element_blank(),
  axis.line = element_line(size=.4)
)

main_plot <- ggplot(srvc_data, aes(x = X, y = Y),xlim=c(0,100), ylim=c(0,100)) +
  t1 +
  theme_bw() +
  labs(x="X", y="Y") +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(0, 100)) +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0, 100)) +
  geom_abline(intercept = 0, slope = 1, colour="blue", size=34, alpha=.1)+
  geom_abline(intercept = 0, slope = 1, colour="black", size=.2, alpha=.5,linetype="dashed")+
  geom_point(size = 7, aes(color = Z), alpha=.7) + 
  scale_color_gradient("Gap %\n",low="green", high="red")+
  coord_fixed()+
  geom_text(aes(label=Key,size=6),show_guide = FALSE)
main_plot

Produces this plot (of course with your random data it will vary)

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here's your plot with ggrepel geom_text_repel:

library(ggrepel)
# TEST DATA
set.seed(42)
srvc_data <- data.frame(
  Key = 1:20,
  X = sample(40:80, 20, replace = T),
  Y = sample(30:65, 20, replace = T)
)
srvc_data$Z <- with(srvc_data,abs(X-Y))


t1<-theme(                              
  plot.background = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.major = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
  panel.border = element_blank(), 
  panel.background = element_blank(),
  axis.line = element_line(size=.4)
)

ggplot(srvc_data, aes(x = X, y = Y),xlim=c(0,100), ylim=c(0,100)) +
  t1 +
  theme_bw() +
  labs(x="X", y="Y") +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(0, 100)) +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0, 100)) +
  geom_abline(intercept = 0, slope = 1, colour="blue", size=34, alpha=.1)+
  geom_abline(intercept = 0, slope = 1, colour="black", size=.2, alpha=.5,linetype="dashed")+
  geom_point(size = 7, aes(color = Z), alpha=.7) + 
  scale_color_gradient("Gap %\n",low="green", high="red")+
  coord_fixed()+
  geom_text_repel(aes(label=Key,size=6),show_guide = FALSE)