r - Dynamic position for ggplot2 objects (especially geom_text)?

Question

When using ArcGIS to make maps, the software by default pushes point and polygon labels around automatically to avoid overlap using a proprietary algorithm. They refer to this as dynamic labeling. ggplot2 has position_jitter which is excellent for points (since dynamic labeling might create systematic bias), but less good for labels using geom_text.

Here's an example of some problems with jitter that a dynamic labeling algorithm might solve:

library(ggplot2)
ggplot( mtcars,aes( x=wt, y=mpg, label=rownames(mtcars) ) ) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_text( position=position_jitter(h=1,w=1) )

Does such a dynamic labeling feature exist already in ggplot2?

If not, what algorithms exist for doing so and is it possible to implement a position_dynamic in R?

Answer 1

Check out the new package ggrepel. ggrepel provides geoms for ggplot2 to repel overlapping text labels. It works both for geom_text and geom_label.

Figure is taken from this blog post.