[hadley]

It's completely not true that ggplot2 defaults were copied without thought from Tufte.

A pale grey background is not chart junk because it does not distract the eye (and indeed it actually enhances colour). You are using Tufte's terms without really understanding them.

[something123]

Sorry I misattributed that. I swore I saw the same style somewhere in his book. I still think it's horrible =) (sorry)

I remember one of the other preset themes was a lot better (though I have a lot of trouble trying to find a list of them)

I absolutely love your libraries and all that you've done with R. You've really transformed data analysis for me. Thank you.