Keywords: ggplot2, extension packages, direct labeling, geospatial data, plot composition, animation
ggplot2 is a widely used visualization platform for the statistical programming language R. It is designed to enable both the rapid interactive exploration of different visualizations and the creation of production-quality figures for scientific publications, books, or news articles. ggplot2 has a powerful extension mechanism that allows 3rd party authors to extend the base functionality in nearly any way imaginable, and the increased adoption of ggplot2 has in part been fueled by the development of a wide range of extension packages. Recent progress in ggplot2 proper has focused on plotting geospatial data, while extension packages have made substantial progress in automated direct labeling, expanding the grammar to enable plot composition, and creating animated plots.