geom_icon_point()

geom_icon_point() is a drop-in replacement for geom_point() that renders Font Awesome icons instead of dots. No preprocessing needed – use it directly with any data frame that has x and y columns.

Fixed icon

Use the icon parameter (not aes()) to display one icon across all points.

ggplot(iris, aes(x = Sepal.Length, y = Petal.Length, color = Species)) +
  geom_icon_point(icon = "seedling", size = 1, dpi = 72) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c(
    setosa     = "#43A047",
    versicolor = "#1E88E5",
    virginica  = "#E53935"
  )) +
  labs(title = "Fixed icon", x = "Sepal Length", y = "Petal Length")

Icon per category

Map icon inside aes() to assign a different icon to each group.

library(ggplot2)
library(ggpop)

df_food <- data.frame(
  food     = c("Apple", "Carrot", "Orange", "Chicken", "Beef", "Salmon",
               "Milk", "Cheese", "Yogurt"),
  calories = c(52, 41, 47, 165, 250, 208, 61, 402, 59),
  protein  = c(0.3, 1.1, 0.9, 31, 26, 20, 3.2, 25, 10),
  group    = c(rep("Fruit", 3), rep("Meat", 3), rep("Dairy", 3)),
  icon     = c("apple-whole", "carrot", "lemon",
               "drumstick-bite", "bacon", "fish",
               "bottle-water", "cheese", "jar")
)

ggplot(df_food, aes(x = calories, y = protein, icon = icon, color = food)) +
  geom_icon_point(size = 2, dpi = 100) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c(
    "Apple" = "#FF5252", "Carrot" = "#FFA726", "Orange" = "#FFB74D",
    "Chicken" = "#8D6E63", "Beef" = "#6D4C41",
    "Salmon" = "#EF5350", "Milk" = "#42A5F5", "Cheese" = "#FFD54F", 
    "Yogurt" = "#4DB6AC"
  )) +
  labs(
    title = "Calories vs. Protein by Food Group",
    subtitle = "Each icon represents a specific food; color reflects the group",
    x = "Calories (per 100g)",
    y = "Protein (g per 100g)",
    color = "Food Group"
  )

Key parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
`icon`	`"person"`	Fixed icon name (overridden by `aes(icon)`)
`size`	`2`	Icon size
`dpi`	`100`	Render resolution
`show.legend`	`NA`	Whether to show legend entry