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ggCheysson

The ggCheysson package brings the graphical styles of the Albums de Statistique Graphique to R and ggplot2.

The Albums were produced by the Ministry of Public Works in France under the direction of Émile Cheysson from 1879-1897. They represent the “pinnacle of the Golden Age of Statistical Graphics” (Friendly, 2008) for their innovation in visualization techniques, graphic design and beauty.

The package is based on work by:

Historical Context

The Albums de Statistique Graphique were published annually by France’s Ministry of Public Works, showcasing infrastructure statistics through innovative visualizations. Under Émile Cheysson’s direction, these albums combined:

  • Sophisticated use of color to represent quantitative variables
  • Hatching patterns to differentiate categories and show density
  • Hand-lettered text with distinctive character
  • Clear hierarchical organization of information

This package preserves these design elements for modern statistical graphics.

Installation

Install the development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("friendly/ggCheysson")

Suggested Dependencies

For full functionality, install these packages:

install.packages(c("ggpattern", "systemfonts"))

Features

This package provides a complete aesthetic system for creating visualizations in Cheysson’s distinctive style:

🎨 Color Palettes

  • 20 authentic color palettes extracted from the original Albums
  • Sequential, diverging, grouped, and categorical palette types
  • Named by album year and plate number (e.g., 1880_07, 1881_03)
  • Compatible with standard ggplot2 color scales

📐 Hatching Patterns

  • 83 pattern specifications including solid fills, stripes, and crosshatching
  • Line angles (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°) matching historical diagrams
  • Variable densities and line widths
  • Full integration with ggpattern

✍️ Authentic Fonts

  • 5 hand-drawn font families replicating Cheysson’s lettering style
  • Regular, Italic, Sans Caps, Outline Caps, and Title variants
  • Automatic loading and integration with ggplot2 themes
  • Created by Kenneth Fields for historical accuracy

🎭 Complete Themes

These were derived by RJ Andrews from a collection of 25 thematic maps across the span of years in which the Albums were produced, shown below.

From these, he abstracted the following combinations of color and pattern he thought characterized these maps:

Not Yet

This initial version of the package defines separate functions and ggplot2 scales for color palettes and shading patterns. Their combination into Cheysson “color - pattern” features is planned.

Quick Start

Here are a few examples to get you started.

Basic Color Palette

Use the color palette of the 1881 Album, plate 4

library(ggplot2)
library(ggCheysson)

ggplot(iris, aes(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width, color = Species)) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_color_cheysson("1881_04") +
  labs(title = "Iris Dataset") +
  theme_minimal()

With Fonts and Theme 

# Load Cheysson fonts (once per session)
load_cheysson_fonts(method = "showtext")
# Enable showtext for rendering
showtext::showtext_auto()

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  scale_color_cheysson("1883_04") +
  labs(
    title = "Automobile Efficiency",
    subtitle = "Weight vs Fuel Economy",
    x = "Weight (1000 lbs)",
    y = "Miles per Gallon"
  ) +
  theme_cheysson()

Complete Cheysson Aesthetic (Colors + Patterns + Fonts) 

library(ggpattern)

data <- data.frame(
  category = LETTERS[1:4],
  value = c(15, 23, 18, 20)
)

ggplot(data, aes(category, value, fill = category)) +
  geom_col_pattern(
    aes(
      pattern_type = category,
      pattern_fill = category,
      pattern_angle = category
    ),
    pattern = "stripe",
    pattern_density = 0.35,
    color = "black"
  ) +
  scale_fill_cheysson_pattern("1881_03") +
  scale_pattern_fill_cheysson("1881_03") +
  scale_pattern_type_cheysson("1881_03") +
  scale_pattern_angle_cheysson("1881_03") +
  labs(
    title = "Statistical Comparison",
    x = "Category",
    y = "Value"
  ) +
  theme_cheysson() +
  theme(legend.position = "none")

Available Palettes

View all available palettes:

# List all palettes
list_cheysson_pals()
#>       name       type album plate n_colors
#> 1  1880_07   category  1880     7        7
#> 2  1881_03 sequential  1881     3        1
#> 3  1881_04   category  1881     4        4
#> 4  1881_08    grouped  1881     8        5
#> 5  1882_04    grouped  1882     4        2
#> 6  1883_04  diverging  1883     4        2
#> 7  1883_06   category  1883     6        4
#> 8  1883_07  diverging  1883     7        3
#> 9  1886_04 sequential  1886     4        2
#> 10 1886_07   category  1886     7        3
#> 11 1886_08    grouped  1886     8        4
#> 12 1887_06    grouped  1887     6        2
#> 13 1888_05 sequential  1888     5        1
#> 14 1891_03    grouped  1891     3        2
#> 15 1891_06 sequential  1891     6        1
#> 16 1891_07 sequential  1891     7        2
#> 17 1895_04 sequential  1895     4        3
#> 18 1900_06 sequential  1900     6        2
#> 19 1906_04   category  1906     4        4
#> 20 1906_06   category  1906     6        6

# List by type
list_cheysson_pals("sequential")
#>      name       type album plate n_colors
#> 1 1881_03 sequential  1881     3        1
#> 2 1886_04 sequential  1886     4        2
#> 3 1888_05 sequential  1888     5        1
#> 4 1891_06 sequential  1891     6        1
#> 5 1891_07 sequential  1891     7        2
#> 6 1895_04 sequential  1895     4        3
#> 7 1900_06 sequential  1900     6        2
# View palette colors
cheysson_pal("1880_07")
#> [1] "#d9636c" "#869e80" "#dec367" "#85aab1" "#aea9a4" "#ed8238" "#ab90a4"

Palette types:

  • Sequential (7 palettes): For ordered quantitative data
  • Diverging (2 palettes): For data with neutral midpoint
  • Grouped (5 palettes): For comparing related groups
  • Category (6 palettes): For categorical data

Pattern Support

With ggpattern, recreate the distinctive hatching styles:

# List available pattern palettes
list_cheysson_patterns()

# Get pattern specifications
patterns <- cheysson_pattern("1881_03")

# Use in plots with pattern scales
scale_pattern_fill_cheysson("1881_03")
scale_pattern_type_cheysson("1881_03")
scale_pattern_angle_cheysson("1881_03")

Font Families

Five Cheysson font families are included:

Family Description Use
Cheysson Regular serif Body text, labels
CheyssonItalic Italic variant Emphasis
CheyssonSansCaps Sans capitals Axis titles
CheyssonOutlineCaps Outlined caps Decorative titles
CheyssonTitle Display font Main titles

Here are some of these:

To use these:

# Load fonts
load_cheysson_fonts(method = "showtext")
showtext::showtext_auto()

# List available fonts
list_cheysson_fonts()

# Use specific fonts
theme(
  plot.title = element_text(family = "CheyssonTitle"),
  axis.title = element_text(family = "CheyssonSansCaps"),
  axis.text = element_text(family = "Cheysson")
)

Package Contents

Data

  • cheysson_palettes - Color palette specifications (20 palettes)
  • cheysson_patterns - Pattern/hatching specifications (83 patterns)
  • albumImages - Metadata linking palettes to original album plates

Color Functions

Pattern Functions

Font Functions

Themes

Sources and Attribution

Color Palettes and Patterns

Fonts

Original maps from the Albums showing the variety of colors and patterns

Extracted color palettes by RJ Andrews

Development Status

This package is under active development. Current features are stable and tested, but the API may evolve. Feedback and contributions are welcome!

License

GPL (>= 3)

Citation

To cite ggCheysson, please use:

citation("ggCheysson")
#> To cite package 'ggCheysson' in publications use:
#> 
#>   Friendly M (2025). _ggCheysson: Styles of Emile Cheysson for
#>   ggplot2_. R package version 1.0.0,
#>   <https://github.com/friendly/ggCheysson>.
#> 
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#> 
#>   @Manual{,
#>     title = {ggCheysson: Styles of Emile Cheysson for ggplot2},
#>     author = {Michael Friendly},
#>     year = {2025},
#>     note = {R package version 1.0.0},
#>     url = {https://github.com/friendly/ggCheysson},
#>   }

To cite the original Albums de Statistique Graphique:

France. Ministère des travaux publics. Album de statistique graphique de [year]. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, [1879-1897].

References

Friendly, M. (2008). The Golden Age of Statistical Graphics. Statistical Science, 23(4), 502–535. https://doi.org/10.1214/08-STS268