No ticks no space (#6071)

* no space for blank ticks

* preserve axis text spacing for `theme_minimal()`

* add news bullet

Author: teunbrand

NEWS.md

@@ -219,6 +219,8 @@
 * New theme elements `palette.{aes}.discrete` and `palette.{aes}.continuous`. 
   Theme palettes replace palettes in scales where `palette = NULL`, which is 
   the new default in many scales (@teunbrand, #4696).
+* `guide_axis()` no longer reserves space for blank ticks 
+  (@teunbrand, #4722, #6069).
 
 # ggplot2 3.5.1
 

R/guide-axis.R

@@ -256,6 +256,12 @@ GuideAxis <- ggproto(
   override_elements = function(params, elements, theme) {
     elements$text <-
       label_angle_heuristic(elements$text, params$position, params$angle)
+    if (inherits(elements$ticks, "element_blank")) {
+      elements$major_length <- unit(0, "cm")
+    }
+    if (inherits(elements$minor, "element_blank") || isFALSE(params$minor.ticks)) {
+      elements$minor_length <- unit(0, "cm")
+    }
     return(elements)
   },
 

R/theme-defaults.R

@@ -451,7 +451,11 @@ theme_minimal <- function(base_size = 11, base_family = "",
     ink = ink, paper = paper
   ) %+replace%
     theme(
-      axis.ticks        = element_blank(),
+      axis.ticks         = element_blank(), # Extra margins due to absence ticks
+      axis.text.x.bottom = element_text(margin = margin(t = 0.45 * base_size)),
+      axis.text.x.top    = element_text(margin = margin(b = 0.45 * base_size)),
+      axis.text.y.left   = element_text(margin = margin(r = 0.45 * base_size)),
+      axis.text.y.right  = element_text(margin = margin(l = 0.45 * base_size)),
       legend.background = element_blank(),
       legend.key        = element_blank(),
       panel.background  = element_blank(),