The “bad” ggplot documentation is mostly a function of one’s own understanding of the grammar of graphics. That’s what the “gg” in ggplot stands for. If you do

The “bad” ggplot documentation is mostly a function of one’s own understanding of the grammar of graphics. That’s what the “gg” in ggplot stands for. If you don’t understand the GG, then ggplot will seem opaque, and no goodness of documentation will suffice. I don’t mean to blame the user. Perhaps the ggplot documentation could improve by reinforcing the need to understand that or referencing it more frequently?