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glyph

The grammar of graphics, rebuilt for a web that moves.

glyph is a next-generation grammar of interactive graphics for R. It treats interactivity, animation, and composable layouts as first-class concepts — not afterthoughts bolted on via a chain of extension packages.


ggplot2 vs glyph

Same plot. One needs plotly, ggrepel, and a paragraph of theme() calls to get interactive, styled, and readable. The other needs a pipe.

ggplot2 (+ plotly, for interactivity) glyph 
library(ggplot2)
library(plotly)

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(
      x = wt, y = mpg,
      color = factor(cyl),
      text = paste0(
        cyl, " cyl, ", mpg,
        " mpg at ", wt, " tons")
    )) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_color_brewer(palette = "Set2") +
  labs(title = "Motor Trend Cars",
       subtitle = "Weight vs fuel efficiency") +
  theme(
    text = element_text(
      family = "Inter", size = 12),
    plot.background = element_rect(
      fill = "#1a1a2e"),
    panel.background = element_rect(
      fill = "#1a1a2e"),
    axis.text = element_text(
      color = "#e0e0e0"),
    panel.grid = element_line(
      color = "#2a2a4a")
  )

ggplotly(p, tooltip = "text")
# loses some theming; no zoom/brush
 
library(glyph)

glyph(mtcars, x = wt, y = mpg) |>
  mark_point(color = cyl) |>
  scale_color("Set2") |>
  interact(
    tooltip = "{cyl} cyl, {mpg} mpg at {wt} tons",
    zoom = TRUE,
    hover = "enlarge"
  ) |>
  theme_tokens(bg = "#1a1a2e", font = "Inter") |>
  titles(
    title = "Motor Trend Cars",
    subtitle = "Weight vs fuel efficiency"
  )




# fg, grid, and title color are
# auto-derived for contrast


# tooltip + zoom + brush, built in

No aes(). No factor() coercion. No + juggling geometry, scales, and theme in one flat expression. And you get zoom, brush, and hover for free.


Why glyph?

Interactivity is grammar, not glue. Tooltips, zoom, brushing, and linked views are declared right in the pipeline with interact() and selection() — not stapled on afterward with plotly::ggplotly().

The spec is the plot. Every glyph visualization is a pure, inspectable data structure. Serialize it to JSON, export it to Vega-Lite with to_vegalite(), or compile() it to HTML, SVG, canvas, or WebGL — without touching the code that built it.

Composition is built in. Multi-plot layouts, marginal distributions, inset plots, and linked brushing across panels ship in compose(), marginals(), and inset() — no patchwork, no ggExtra.

Tokens, not 90 theme arguments. theme_tokens() takes a handful of design tokens — font, background, grid — and cascades foreground, grid, and title colors automatically for contrast.

Animation is a pipeline step. animate() declares transitions, stagger, and easing right where the plot is built, with no separate gganimate render pass.


Installation 

install.packages("glyph")

# Development version
# remotes::install_github("josh45-source/glyph")


Getting Started 

library(glyph)

glyph(mtcars, x = wt, y = mpg) |>
  mark_point(color = cyl, size = hp) |>
  interact(tooltip = "{cyl} cyl, {mpg} mpg at {wt} tons", zoom = TRUE) |>
  scale("y", zero = TRUE, label = "Miles per gallon") |>
  theme_tokens(preset = "dark") |>
  titles(title = "Motor Trend Cars", subtitle = "Weight vs fuel efficiency")

Read the Getting Started guide for live, interactive examples, the side-by-side comparison against ggplot2, or browse the function reference to see everything glyph can do.