r - Control point border thickness in ggplot

Question

When using ggplot, I can set shape to 21-25 to get shapes that have independent setting for the internal (fill) and border (col) colors, like so:

df <- data.frame(id=runif(12), x=1:12, y=runif(12))
ggplot(df, aes(x=x, y=y)) + 
  geom_point(aes(fill=id, size=id), colour="black", shape=21)

However, I can't figure out how to control the thickness of the shape borders, either setting them absolutely or as an aesthetic mapping. I note that if I set an lwd value, it overrides the size aesthetic:

ggplot(df, aes(x=x, y=y)) + 
  geom_point(aes(fill=id, size=id), colour="black", shape=21, lwd=2)

How do I control the border thickness?

Answer 1

Starting in version 2.0.0 of ggplot2, there is an argument to control point border thickness. From the NEWS.md file:

geom_point() gains a stroke aesthetic which controls the border width of shapes 21-25 (#1133, @SeySayux). size and stroke are additive so a point with size = 5 and stroke = 5 will have a diameter of 10mm. (#1142)

Thus, the correct solution to this is now:

df <- data.frame(id=runif(12), x=1:12, y=runif(12))
ggplot(df, aes(x=x, y=y)) + 
  geom_point(aes(fill=id, size=id), colour="black", shape=21, stroke = 2)