ggplot2: Curly braces on an axis?

Update: Be sure to see this related Stackoverflow Q&A if you need to save the plot with ggsave() and have the brackets persist in the saved image.

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The OP requested the bracket be off the plot. This solution uses axis.ticks.length in combination with axis.ticks = element_blank() to allow the brace to be outside the plotting area. This answer builds upon those of @Pankil and @user697473: we will use pBrackets R package -- and include pictures!

library(ggplot2)
library(grid)
library(pBrackets) 
x <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
y <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
the_plot <- qplot(x=x,y=y) +
  scale_x_continuous("",breaks=c(.5,2.5),labels=c("Low types","High types") ) +
  theme(axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        axis.ticks.length = unit(.85, "cm"))


#Run grid.locator a few times to get coordinates for the outer
#most points of the bracket, making sure the 
#bottom_y coordinate is just at the bottom of the gray area.
# to exit grid.locator hit esc; after setting coordinates
# in grid.bracket comment out grid.locator() line
the_plot
grid.locator(unit="native") 
bottom_y <- 284
grid.brackets(220, bottom_y,   80, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(600, bottom_y,  440, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")

A quick note on @Pankil's answer:

## Bracket coordinates depend on the size of the plot
## for instance,
## Pankil's suggested bracket coordinates do not work
## with the following sizing:
the_plot
grid.brackets(240, 440, 50, 440, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(570, 440, 381, 440, lwd=2, col="red")
## 440 seems to be off the graph...

And a couple more to showcase functionality of pBrackets:

#note, if you reverse the x1 and x2, the bracket flips:
the_plot
grid.brackets( 80, bottom_y, 220, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(440, bottom_y, 600, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")

## go vertical:
the_plot
grid.brackets(235, 200, 235, 300, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(445, 125, 445,  25, lwd=2, col="red")

Here is kludgy solution in ggplot that constructs a line drawing that vaguely resembles a curly bracket.

Construct a function that takes as input the position and dimensions of a curly bracket. What this function does is to specify the co-ordinates of an outline drawing of a bracket and uses some math scaling to get it to the size and position desired. You can use this principle and modify the co-ordinates to give you any desired shape. In principle you can use the same concept and add curves, ellipses, etc.

bracket <- function(x, width, y, height){
  data.frame(
      x=(c(0,1,4,5,6,9,10)/10-0.5)*(width) + x,
      y=c(0,1,1,2,1,1,0)/2*(height) + y
  )
}

Pass that to ggplot and specifically geom_line

qplot(x=x,y=y) +
    scale_x_continuous("",breaks=c(.5,2.5), labels=c("Low types","High types")) +
    geom_line(data=bracket(0.5,1,0,-0.2)) +
    geom_line(data=bracket(2.5,2,0,-0.2))

Another solution using a function that draws a curly bracket.

Thanks Gur!

curly <- function(N = 100, Tilt = 1, Long = 2, scale = 0.1, xcent = 0.5,
                  ycent = 0.5, theta = 0, col = 1, lwd = 1, grid = FALSE){

# N determines how many points in each curve
# Tilt is the ratio between the axis in the ellipse 
#  defining the curliness of each curve
# Long is the length of the straight line in the curly brackets 
#  in units of the projection of the curly brackets in this dimension
# 2*scale is the absolute size of the projection of the curly brackets 
#  in the y dimension (when theta=0)
# xcent is the location center of the x axis of the curly brackets
# ycent is the location center of the y axis of the curly brackets
# theta is the angle (in radians) of the curly brackets orientation
# col and lwd are passed to points/grid.lines

           ymin <- scale / Tilt
           y2 <- ymin * Long
           i <- seq(0, pi/2, length.out = N)

           x <- c(ymin * Tilt * (sin(i)-1),
                  seq(0,0, length.out = 2),
                  ymin * (Tilt * (1 - sin(rev(i)))),
                  ymin * (Tilt * (1 - sin(i))),
                  seq(0,0, length.out = 2),
                  ymin * Tilt * (sin(rev(i)) - 1))

           y <- c(-cos(i) * ymin,
                  c(0,y2),
                  y2 + (cos(rev(i))) * ymin,
                  y2 + (2 - cos(i)) * ymin,
                  c(y2 + 2 * ymin, 2 * y2 + 2 * ymin),
                  2 * y2 + 2 * ymin + cos(rev(i)) * ymin)

           x <- x + xcent
           y <- y + ycent - ymin - y2

           x1 <- cos(theta) * (x - xcent) - sin(theta) * (y - ycent) + xcent
           y1 <- cos(theta) * (y - ycent) + sin(theta) * (x - xcent) + ycent

           ##For grid library:
           if(grid){
              grid.lines(unit(x1,"npc"), unit(y1,"npc"),gp=gpar(col=col,lwd=lwd))
           }

           ##Uncomment for base graphics
           else{
              par(xpd=TRUE)
              points(x1,y1,type='l',col=col,lwd=lwd)
              par(xpd=FALSE)
           }

}


library(ggplot2)
x <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
y <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
qplot(x=x,y=y) +
  scale_x_continuous("",breaks=c(.5,2.5),labels=c("Low types","High types") )

curly(N=100,Tilt=0.4,Long=0.3,scale=0.025,xcent=0.2525,
      ycent=par()$usr[3]+0.1,theta=-pi/2,col="red",lwd=2,grid=TRUE)
curly(N=100,Tilt=0.4,Long=0.3,scale=0.025,xcent=0.8,
      ycent=par()$usr[3]+0.1,theta=-pi/2,col="red",lwd=2,grid=TRUE)