When `{showtext}` is used with `{ggtext}`, text is weirdly spread.

[Felixmil]

For demonstrating this, I will use the example plot from {ggtext}. My graphical device is set to ragg::agg_png.

Thank you for your work on this package :)

Plot without {showtext}

library(tidyverse)
library(ggtext)
library(glue)

ggplot(mtcars, aes(disp, mpg)) + 
  geom_point() +
  labs(
    title = "<b>Fuel economy vs. engine displacement</b><br>
    <span style = 'font-size:10pt'>Lorem ipsum *dolor sit amet,*
    consectetur adipiscing elit, **sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt** ut
    labore et dolore magna aliqua. <span style = 'color:red;'>Ut enim
    ad minim veniam,</span> quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi
    ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</span>",
    x = "displacement (in<sup>3</sup>)",
    y = "Miles per gallon (mpg)<br><span style = 'font-size:8pt'>A measure of
    the car's fuel efficiency.</span>"
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title.position = "plot",
    plot.title = element_textbox_simple(
      size = 13,
      lineheight = 1,
      padding = margin(5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5),
      margin = margin(0, 0, 5.5, 0),
      fill = "cornsilk"
    ),
    axis.title.x = element_textbox_simple(
      width = NULL,
      padding = margin(4, 4, 4, 4),
      margin = margin(4, 0, 0, 0),
      linetype = 1,
      r = grid::unit(8, "pt"),
      fill = "azure1"
    ),
    axis.title.y = element_textbox_simple(
      hjust = 0,
      orientation = "left-rotated",
      minwidth = unit(1, "in"),
      maxwidth = unit(2, "in"),
      padding = margin(4, 4, 2, 4),
      margin = margin(0, 0, 2, 0),
      fill = "lightsteelblue1"
    )
  )

Plot with {showtext}

showtext::showtext_auto()

ggplot(mtcars, aes(disp, mpg)) + 
  geom_point() +
  labs(
    title = "<b>Fuel economy vs. engine displacement</b><br>
    <span style = 'font-size:10pt'>Lorem ipsum *dolor sit amet,*
    consectetur adipiscing elit, **sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt** ut
    labore et dolore magna aliqua. <span style = 'color:red;'>Ut enim
    ad minim veniam,</span> quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi
    ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</span>",
    x = "displacement (in<sup>3</sup>)",
    y = "Miles per gallon (mpg)<br><span style = 'font-size:8pt'>A measure of
    the car's fuel efficiency.</span>"
  ) +
  theme(
    plot.title.position = "plot",
    plot.title = element_textbox_simple(
      size = 13,
      lineheight = 1,
      padding = margin(5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5),
      margin = margin(0, 0, 5.5, 0),
      fill = "cornsilk"
    ),
    axis.title.x = element_textbox_simple(
      width = NULL,
      padding = margin(4, 4, 4, 4),
      margin = margin(4, 0, 0, 0),
      linetype = 1,
      r = grid::unit(8, "pt"),
      fill = "azure1"
    ),
    axis.title.y = element_textbox_simple(
      hjust = 0,
      orientation = "left-rotated",
      minwidth = unit(1, "in"),
      maxwidth = unit(2, "in"),
      padding = margin(4, 4, 2, 4),
      margin = margin(0, 0, 2, 0),
      fill = "lightsteelblue1"
    )
  )

Session Info

R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16 ucrt)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 11 x64 (build 22621)

Matrix products: default


locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.utf8  LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom.utf8    LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.utf8
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                            LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.utf8    

time zone: Europe/Paris
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
 [1] glue_1.6.2      ggtext_0.1.2    lubridate_1.9.2 forcats_1.0.0   stringr_1.5.0   dplyr_1.1.3     purrr_1.0.2     readr_2.1.4    
 [9] tidyr_1.3.0     tibble_3.2.1    ggplot2_3.4.3   tidyverse_2.0.0

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] gtable_0.3.4      compiler_4.3.1    tidyselect_1.2.0  Rcpp_1.0.11       xml2_1.3.5        showtext_0.9-6    textshaping_0.3.6
 [8] systemfonts_1.0.4 scales_1.2.1      R6_2.5.1          commonmark_1.9.0  labeling_0.4.3    generics_0.1.3    showtextdb_3.0   
[15] munsell_0.5.0     pillar_1.9.0      tzdb_0.4.0        rlang_1.1.1       utf8_1.2.3        stringi_1.7.12    xfun_0.40        
[22] timechange_0.2.0  cli_3.6.1         withr_2.5.0       magrittr_2.0.3    grid_4.3.1        gridtext_0.1.5    rstudioapi_0.15.0
[29] markdown_1.8      hms_1.1.3         lifecycle_1.0.3   sysfonts_0.8.8    vctrs_0.6.3       farver_2.1.1      ragg_1.2.5       
[36] fansi_1.0.4       colorspace_2.1-0  tools_4.3.1       pkgconfig_2.0.3