Introduction to ggtaichi

Why taichi?

A heat map drawn with ggplot2::geom_tile() carries three dimensions of information: the x position, the y position, and a single value mapped to fill. That is plenty when there is one number per cell, but it forces you to facet (or to draw two separate maps) the moment you want to compare two data sources on the same footing.

ggtaichi removes that limitation by replacing each cell with a taichi (yin-yang) diagram. The symbol is a circle split by an S-curve into two interlocking “fish”:

the yang (light) fish is shaded by one data source, and
the yin (dark) fish is shaded by the other.

Because both fish live in the same cell, a single geom_taichi() layer encodes four dimensions at once: x, y, yin, and yang. The two sources keep their own color scales and legends, so they can be read independently while still being compared side by side. By default there are no decorative eyes or markers – every drop of ink on the plot is mapped to data – and when you do switch the classic eyes on (eyes = TRUE, new in v0.2.0), they can carry data too, taking a single glyph up to six dimensions.

library(ggtaichi)
library(ggplot2)

Reading a single symbol

It is worth zooming in on one cell to see the anatomy of the glyph. The yang fish (its bulb at the bottom) carries one source; the yin fish (its bulb at the top) carries the other. Each half is filled by its own gradient, so a lighter or darker shade is a smaller or larger value.

one <- data.frame(x = 1, y = 1, google = 7, twitter = 3)

ggplot(one, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = twitter, yang = google) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

A single large taichi diagram, its red yang fish reading a high value and its grey yin fish a low value.

Here the yang (red) fish reads 7 and the yin (grey) fish reads 3; the deeper the ink, the larger the number relative to the rest of the data.

The example data

ggtaichi ships with the same data sets used by its foundational package ggDoubleHeat. pitts_tg records the 30-week COVID-related Google and Twitter incidence rates for 9 categories in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

head(pitts_tg)
#> # A tibble: 6 × 6
#>   msa         week week_start category          Twitter Google
#>   <chr>      <int> <date>     <chr>               <dbl>  <dbl>
#> 1 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 Covid              0.965  0.681 
#> 2 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 General Virus      0.538  0.0982
#> 3 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 Masks              0.466  0.117 
#> 4 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 Sanitizing         0.0561 0.127 
#> 5 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 Social Distancing  0.294  0.0386
#> 6 Pittsburgh     1 2020-06-01 Symptoms           0.0457 0.0770

states_tg is the larger sibling, repeating the same measurements across four states, and pitts_emojis holds the most popular weekly emoji per category. Since v0.2.0 the package also bundles cafes_tg, a small synthetic espresso-vs-matcha dataset whose two columns share the same units — handy for the shared-scale features shown later. See ?pitts_tg, ?states_tg, ?pitts_emojis, and ?cafes_tg for the full descriptions.

A first taichi grid

The two value columns are passed to the yin and yang arguments. Everything else – the x/y mapping, faceting, titles – is plain ggplot2. The legend titles default to the column names you supplied (Twitter and Google here).

ggplot(pitts_tg, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = Twitter, yang = Google) +
  theme_taichi() +
  ggtitle("Pittsburgh Google & Twitter Incidence Rate (%)")

A full 30-week by 9-category grid of taichi diagrams for Pittsburgh, red yang fish for Google and grey yin fish for Twitter.

Each symbol stays round regardless of the panel’s aspect ratio, so you do not need coord_fixed(). The shape is sized in square units, like the radius of a grid::circleGrob().

Fewer cells, bigger glyphs

Thirty weeks across nine categories is a lot of ink in one panel. When the goal is to read individual symbols rather than scan an overall texture, subset the data: fewer cells means each taichi is drawn larger.

pitts_small <- subset(pitts_tg, week <= 6)

ggplot(pitts_small, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = Twitter, yang = Google) +
  theme_taichi() +
  ggtitle("The first six weeks, drawn large")

A six-week Pittsburgh grid of taichi diagrams drawn large enough to read each fish clearly.

Which source should be yin?

yin defaults to a grey (luminance) ramp and yang to a red ramp, echoing the “ink and seal” look of a classic taichi. The choice is yours, but a useful rule of thumb is to put the source you want to read as intensity on yin (the eye reads darkness quickly) and the source you want to read as warmth on yang.

Customizing the color scales

Each fish gets its own scale. yang_colors and yin_colors accept any color vector (usually hex codes), and yang_name / yin_name relabel the legends. Any extra argument in ... is forwarded to both auto-built fill scales, so you can, for example, set common limits so the two legends share a range, or pass an na.value. When the two fish need different scale options – or an entirely different scale type – hand a scale object or constructor to yin_scale / yang_scale and it is used verbatim.

ggplot(pitts_small, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(
    yin = Twitter,  yin_name = "Twitter (%)",
    yin_colors = c("#deebf7", "#3182bd", "#08306b"),
    yang = Google, yang_name = "Google (%)",
    yang_colors = c("#fee6ce", "#e6550d", "#7f2704")
  ) +
  theme_taichi()

The six-week Pittsburgh grid of taichi diagrams with a blue gradient for Twitter and an orange gradient for Google.

Removing the panel padding

ggplot2 leaves a margin around discrete and continuous scales, which can make a taichi grid look like it is floating. remove_padding() trims it — as of v0.2.0 it detects each axis’s scale type by itself, and you can still spell it out with "c" (continuous) / "d" (discrete) when you want to override the detection.

ggplot(pitts_small, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = Twitter, yang = Google) +
  remove_padding() +
  theme_taichi()

The six-week Pittsburgh taichi grid with the surrounding panel padding removed so the symbols reach the plot edges.

Because geom_taichi() is an ordinary layer, faceting works out of the box. The states_tg data set carries the same measurements across four states; pairing two of them over a few weeks keeps every glyph large and legible.

two_states <- subset(states_tg, state %in% c("New York", "Texas") & week <= 6)

ggplot(two_states, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = Twitter, yang = Google) +
  facet_wrap(~ state, ncol = 1) +
  remove_padding(x = "c", y = "d") +
  theme_taichi() +
  ggtitle("New York vs Texas, weeks 1-6")

Two faceted taichi grids comparing New York and Texas over six weeks, red yang fish for Google and grey yin fish for Twitter.

Theming

theme_taichi() is a light, off-white companion theme that bottoms the legends, drops the panel grid and ticks, and emphasizes the axis labels. It is a normal ggplot2 theme, so you can override any element afterwards, or skip it entirely and bring your own.

ggplot(pitts_small, aes(x = week, y = category)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = Twitter, yang = Google) +
  theme_taichi() +
  theme(plot.background = element_rect(fill = "white")) +
  ggtitle("theme_taichi(), then tweaked")

The six-week Pittsburgh taichi grid using theme_taichi() with its off-white background overridden to plain white.

New in v0.2.0

Rotation

The angle argument rotates each glyph by the given number of degrees. It can be a constant (same angle for every cell) or a column name (one angle per cell), encoding a directional or temporal variable as orientation.

one_rot <- data.frame(
  x = c(1, 2, 1, 2),
  y = c(2, 2, 1, 1),
  yin = c(3, 5, 7, 9),
  yang = c(9, 7, 5, 3),
  rot = c(0, 45, 90, 180)
)

ggplot(one_rot, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = yin, yang = yang, angle = rot,
              limits = c(0, 10)) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

Four taichi diagrams with rotation angles 0, 45, 90, and 180 drawn from a data column.

Data-driven eyes

Setting eyes = TRUE draws the classic taichi dots, each sitting in its own fish’s head: the yin eye in the top bulb, the yang eye in the bottom one. With the default white and black dots the glyph looks exactly like the traditional symbol.

one_eye <- data.frame(
  x = c(1, 2, 1, 2),
  y = c(2, 2, 1, 1),
  yin = c(3, 5, 7, 9),
  yang = c(9, 7, 5, 3)
)

ggplot(one_eye, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = yin, yang = yang, eyes = TRUE,
              limits = c(0, 10)) +  # shared limits keep the palest fish visible
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

Four taichi diagrams with the classic white and black eyes enabled.

The eyes are not just decoration: yin_eye_size, yang_eye_size, yin_eye_colour, and yang_eye_colour all accept either a constant or an unquoted column name, so the two dots can encode up to two further variables – a fifth and sixth dimension on top of x, y, and the two fills. A mapped size column is rescaled to eye radii between 5% and 30% of the glyph radius (values already between 0 and 0.5 are used as exact proportions, and an NA suppresses the eye for that cell).

one_eye$reach   <- c(10, 40, 25, 5)   # drives the yin eye
one_eye$quality <- c(2, 1, 4, 8)      # drives the yang eye

ggplot(one_eye, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = yin, yang = yang,
              eyes = TRUE,
              yin_eye_size = reach,
              yang_eye_size = quality,
              limits = c(0, 10)) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

Four taichi diagrams whose eye sizes vary from cell to cell, encoding two extra variables.

Categorical fills

geom_taichi() now automatically detects whether the yin / yang columns are numeric or discrete (factor / character / logical) and picks the appropriate scale – computed expressions such as factor(week) work too. With the default palettes the discrete colors are sampled from the ramp skipping its palest end, so every category stays visible.

disc <- data.frame(
  x = c(1, 2, 1, 2),
  y = c(2, 2, 1, 1),
  method = factor(c("A", "B", "C", "A")),
  outcome = factor(c("win", "loss", "win", "loss"))
)

ggplot(disc, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = method, yang = outcome) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

Taichi grid with discrete category fills: methods A to C on the yin fish and win or loss on the yang fish.

For full control, hand any fill scale – an object or a constructor function – to yin_scale / yang_scale; it overrides the auto-detection and the *_colors vectors entirely:

ggplot(disc, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = method, yang = outcome,
              yin_scale = scale_fill_viridis_d,
              yang_scale = scale_fill_viridis_d(name = "outcome", option = "rocket",
                                                begin = 0.4, end = 0.8)) +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

The same discrete taichi grid drawn with viridis palettes supplied through yin_scale and yang_scale.

Missing values

A fish whose fill value is NA is painted in its scale’s na.value colour (grey by default; pass e.g. na.value = "transparent" through ... to hide it), so one missing source never suppresses the other fish. na.rm = TRUE additionally drops rows with missing positions, and an NA eye size simply skips that cell’s eye.

Geom parameter routing

All standard geom parameters (alpha, colour, linewidth, linetype, width, height, na.rm, show.legend) are now properly accepted by geom_taichi() and forwarded to the underlying fish geoms. The deprecated size aesthetic has been replaced with linewidth.

one_lwd <- data.frame(
  x = c(1, 2, 1, 2),
  y = c(2, 2, 1, 1),
  yin = c(3, 5, 7, 9),
  yang = c(9, 7, 5, 3)
)

ggplot(one_lwd, aes(x, y)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = yin, yang = yang,
              alpha = 0.7, linewidth = 1.5, colour = "#333333") +
  coord_fixed() +
  theme_taichi()

Taichi diagrams with custom linewidth, alpha, and colour.

Shared limits and a single legend

When the two sources are measured in the same units, two separate legends are noise. shared_limits = TRUE aligns the limits of both fill scales (the union range of the two columns, or the union of levels for two discrete sources), so equal values carry equal ink. shared_legend = TRUE goes further: both fish use the yin palette and only one legend is shown. The synthetic cafes_tg data is the natural demo — espresso and matcha orders per 100 customers:

ggplot(cafes_tg, aes(x = week, y = neighbourhood)) +
  geom_taichi(yin = matcha, yang = espresso,
              shared_legend = TRUE,
              yin_name = "orders / 100 customers") +
  remove_padding() +
  theme_taichi() +
  ggtitle("Espresso (yang) vs matcha (yin)")

A 12-week by 8-neighbourhood taichi grid of espresso versus matcha orders sharing one grey fill scale and a single legend.

For diverging data (values around 0), pass a diverging palette to both color arguments and symmetric limits through ..., e.g. limits = c(-5, 5) — both fish then hinge on the same midpoint.

The fish geoms are exported

geom_yin_fish() and geom_yang_fish() — the layers geom_taichi() is built from — are now exported and documented. Reach for them when you want one fish only, or full manual control over scales and ggnewscale::new_scale_fill() stacking. See ?geom_yin_fish.

Faster rendering

All cells of a layer are now drawn as one batched polygon (and one batch of eye dots) resolved at draw time, instead of one grob stack per cell. Large grids and animation frames render several times faster, and glyphs stay perfectly round when you resize the device.

When (not) to use taichi

A taichi grid is at its best when comparing two sources cell by cell is the question — the interlocking fish put both numbers in one glance. A few honest caveats:

Dense grids become texture. Past roughly a thousand cells you stop reading symbols and start reading fields; that is still useful for spotting bands and regime changes, but for precise lookup, subset (as done above) or facet.
Luminance is a coarse channel. Small differences in a fish’s shade are hard to judge; when exact comparison matters, add shared limits (shared_limits = TRUE) so at least the two fish are on the same footing, and consider printing the numbers alongside.
Color-vision deficiency. The default grey ramp is luminance-only and safe, and the default red ramp varies strongly in luminance as well. For fully colorblind-safe plots, supply viridis scales: yin_scale = ggplot2::scale_fill_viridis_c (and a second option like "magma" for yang) — every figure in this vignette can be redrawn that way with one argument per fish.
One source missing? An NA fish keeps its place (painted in na.value), so absence is visible rather than silently dropped.

Acknowledgement

ggtaichi stands on the shoulders of the ggDoubleHeat package, which pioneered the two-source “double” heat map through its geom_heat_*() family and supplies the example data used throughout this vignette. Please cite it alongside ggtaichi:

Yu Y, Buskirk T (2025). ggDoubleHeat: A Heatmap-Like Visualization Tool. R package version 0.1.3. CRAN: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ggDoubleHeat, GitHub: https://github.com/PursuitOfDataScience/ggDoubleHeat