Continuous position scale
(m <- qplot(rating, votes, data=movies)) # Manipulating the default position scales lets you: # * change the axis labels m + scale_y_continuous("number of votes") m + scale_y_continuous(expression(votes^alpha)) # * modify the axis limits m + scale_y_continuous(limits=c(NA, 5000)) m + scale_y_continuous(limits=c(1000, NA)) m + scale_x_continuous(limits=c(7, 8)) # * choose where the ticks appear m + scale_x_continuous(breaks=1:10) m + scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(1,3,7,9)) # There are also a wide range of transformations you can use: m + scale_y_log10() m + scale_y_log() m + scale_y_log2() m + scale_y_sqrt() # see ?transformer for a full list # qplot allows you to do some of this with a little less typing: # * axis limits qplot(rating, votes, data=movies, xlim=c(5,10), ylim=c(50000, NA)) # * axis labels qplot(rating, votes, data=movies, xlab="My x axis", ylab="My y axis") # * log scaling qplot(rating, votes, data=movies, log="xy")