Avoiding overlapping labels in geom_textpath

Question

I have created a simple line chart with ggplot2 and would like to use geom_textpath to display the labelnames in the chart. The problem is that the labels currently overlap too much. How can I change this, either automatically or manually? Maybe there’s also a completely different and simple alternative?

library(ggplot2)
library(geomtextpath)

data <- structure(list(SCHULJAHR = c(2015, 2015, 2015, 2015, 2015, 2015, 
2015, 2016, 2016, 2016, 2016, 2016, 2016, 2016, 2017, 2017, 2017, 
2017, 2017, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2018, 2018, 2018, 2018, 2018, 2018, 
2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2020, 2020, 2020, 2020, 
2020, 2020, 2020, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2021, 2022, 
2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2023, 2023, 2023, 2023, 2023, 
2023, 2023, 2024, 2024, 2024, 2024, 2024, 2024, 2024, 2025, 2025, 
2025, 2025, 2025, 2025, 2025), Schulform = c("Berufskolleg", 
"Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", 
"Hauptschule", "Realschule", "Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", 
"Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", 
"Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", 
"Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", "Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", 
"Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", 
"Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", 
"Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", "Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", 
"Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", 
"Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", 
"Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", "Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", 
"Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", 
"Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", 
"Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", "Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", 
"Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", "Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule", 
"Berufskolleg", "Förderschule", "Gesamtschule", "Grundschule", 
"Gymnasium", "Hauptschule", "Realschule"), rel_change = c(0, 
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2.01850697607518, -3.05949008498584, 2.11726384364821, 
3.94091136705058, -0.532820247169392, 0.143729787998563, 0.583279325988334, 
1.90823224816608, -3.28611898016997, 1.65038002171553, 5.13770655983976, 
-2.63450011100422, -0.395256916996047, -2.13869086195723, 1.60617538476291, 
1.58640226628895, 1.06406080347448, 5.45317976965448, -2.19788351957374, 
0.826446280991736, -1.50356448476993, 0.68082658100398, 6.85552407932011, 
1.12920738327904, 5.81872809213821, -2.21268408199512, 2.08408192597916, 
-1.98314970836034, -1.49590065685381, 8.95184135977337, 3.82193268186754, 
7.64146219328993, -2.27928661289129, -3.0901904419691, -2.099805573558, 
-1.24178932732416, 10.3116147308782, 11.4223669923996, 9.9649474211317, 
-2.10908014504551, -8.22853036291771, -3.05897602073882, -2.17193268447044, 
14.957507082153, 15.42888165038, 13.670505758638, 1.66506327240435, 
-7.22242184692778, -3.13674659753726, -0.455482571798437, 28.4985835694051, 
18.7296416938111, 18.9534301452178, 2.13128098867757, -7.36615163492634, 
-3.61633182112767, 0.469866231960493, 35.1841359773371, 19.3485342019544, 
20.9714571857787, 3.50033301265448, -4.4196909809558, -1.81464679196371, 
-1.99453420913842, 44.5892351274788, 22.5081433224756, NA, 5.38740472137941, 
-7.15055695292849, -0.0518470511989631)), row.names = c(NA, -77L
), class = c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))


plot <- ggplot(data = data) +
  geom_line(aes(x = SCHULJAHR, y = rel_change, group = Schulform, colour = Schulform), size = 4.0, linetype ="solid") +
  geom_text(
    data = data %>%
      filter(SCHULJAHR %in% c(2025)),
    aes(
      x = SCHULJAHR, 
      y = rel_change, 
      label = sprintf("%.1f", rel_change),
      colour = Schulform   
    ),
    vjust = -0.5, hjust = 0.5, size = 5.0, fontface = "bold"
  ) +
 geom_textpath(
    aes(
      x = SCHULJAHR ,  
      y = rel_change,
      group = Schulform,
      colour = Schulform,
      label = Schulform
    ),
    size = 5.0,
    fontface = "bold",
    text_only = TRUE,
    hjust = 0.5,
    vjust = -0.2
  )

With that much overlapping lines it's hard to avoid any overlaps. Instead I would suggest to add the labels at the end of the lines using geom_text or ggrepel::geom_text_repel to avoid overlaps, e.g. something like i.sstatic.net/Jp7wKGl2.png — stefan
– stefan, Commented Nov 7 at 7:30
Hi Stefan, thank you for your feedback! Could you share the code you used for the geom_text (or geom_text_repel)? — Felix
– Felix, Commented Nov 7 at 10:01

Edward · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-07 10:53:31Z

5

You can try tweaking the values of the hjust argument (horizontal adjustment).

ggplot(data = data) + ...
geom_textpath(..., hjust = rep(c(.1, .9, .5, .9, .9, .8, .5), 11)) +
guides(colour=FALSE)

Giving:

answered Nov 7 at 10:53

Edward

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