Alternative for geom_label in ggplotly

Question

I would like to use the "fill" function of geom_label in a ggplotly graph. Unfortunately, ggplotly does not support geom_label. Instead I am working with geom_text but you cannot use "fill" here. Is there an alternative of how to get a background around your text without geom_label as in the picture below?

Answer 1

Well, this mimics the aesthetic of geom_label:

#First compute sizes
width <- strwidth(rownames(mtcars),units = "figure")
height <- strheight(rownames(mtcars),units = "figure")
xrange <- diff(range(mtcars$wt))
yrange <- diff(range(mtcars$mpg))

#New dataset
data <- data.frame(x = mtcars$wt,
                   y = mtcars$mpg,
                   label = rownames(mtcars),
                   xmin = mtcars$wt - width*xrange,
                   xmax = mtcars$wt + width*xrange,
                   ymin = mtcars$mpg - height*yrange,
                   ymax = mtcars$mpg + height*yrange)

gg <- ggplot(data, aes(x, y, label = label)) + 
  geom_rect(fill = "white",aes(xmin = xmin,xmax = xmax,ymin = ymin,ymax = ymax)) +
  geom_text() 

ggplotly(gg)

But it's not great. If you zoom in the rectangles will not resize as the text does, so consider whether you can live with that. Hope it helps!