Changing background of patchwork plot

[MarliesJFrancine]

Hi, I have made two separate box plots using ggplot, both of these have no background. When I then apply patchwork to store them side-by-side in an individual plot, the background becomes white. How can I change this? I want there to be no background color. I do want the grid-lines from the plots, just not the white square behind it

[technocrat]

library(ggplot2)
library(patchwork)

p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp)) +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent"), # Transparent panel background
    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent", color = NA), # Transparent plot background
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent")
  ) # Transparent legend background

p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, drat)) +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent"), # Transparent panel background
    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent", color = NA), # Transparent plot background
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent")
  ) # Transparent legend background

# this works
ggsave("plot_transparent_background.png", p1, bg = "transparent")

# this doesn't
p <- p1 + p2

ggsave("plot_transparent_background.png", p, bg = "transparent")

[MarliesJFrancine]

Thank you for the reply!

Is there any way to save both plots as one .png with a transparent background?
As in, save the "p" plot with transparent background.

[technocrat]

This will require tinkering.

library(ggplot2)
library(magick)
#> Linking to ImageMagick 6.9.12.93
#> Enabled features: cairo, fontconfig, freetype, heic, lcms, pango, raw, rsvg, webp
#> Disabled features: fftw, ghostscript, x11

p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp)) +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent"), # Transparent panel background
    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent", color = NA), # Transparent plot background
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent")
  ) # Transparent legend background

p2 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, drat)) +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent"), # Transparent panel background
    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent", color = NA), # Transparent plot background
    legend.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent")
  ) # Transparent legend background

ggsave("/Users/ro/Desktop/plot_transparent_backgroundleft.png", p1, bg = "transparent")
#> Saving 7 x 5 in image
#> `geom_smooth()` using formula = 'y ~ x'
ggsave("/Users/ro/Desktop/plot_transparent_backgroundright.png", p2, bg = "transparent")
#> Saving 7 x 5 in image
#> `geom_smooth()` using formula = 'y ~ x'

# stitching

left  <- image_read("/Users/ro/Desktop/plot_transparent_backgroundleft.png")
right <- image_read("/Users/ro/Desktop/plot_transparent_backgroundright.png")
stuck <- image_append(c(left,right))
image_write(stuck,"/Users/ro/Desktop/stuck.png","png")

^{Created on 2023-11-26 with reprex v2.0.2}

cut-and-paste of image as saved (transparent background not apparent in web rendering but can be seen in photo editor)