ggplot2: Curly braces on an axis?

Question

In answering a recent visualization question I really needed braces to show a span on an axis, and I can\'t figure out how to do it in ggplot2. Here\'s the plot:

Answer 1

Update: Be sure to see this related Stackoverflow Q&A if you need to save the plot with ggsave() and have the brackets persist in the saved image.

---

The OP requested the bracket be off the plot. This solution uses axis.ticks.length in combination with axis.ticks = element_blank() to allow the brace to be outside the plotting area. This answer builds upon those of @Pankil and @user697473: we will use pBrackets R package -- and include pictures!

library(ggplot2)
library(grid)
library(pBrackets) 
x <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
y <- c(runif(10),runif(10)+2)
the_plot <- qplot(x=x,y=y) +
  scale_x_continuous("",breaks=c(.5,2.5),labels=c("Low types","High types") ) +
  theme(axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        axis.ticks.length = unit(.85, "cm"))


#Run grid.locator a few times to get coordinates for the outer
#most points of the bracket, making sure the 
#bottom_y coordinate is just at the bottom of the gray area.
# to exit grid.locator hit esc; after setting coordinates
# in grid.bracket comment out grid.locator() line
the_plot
grid.locator(unit="native") 
bottom_y <- 284
grid.brackets(220, bottom_y,   80, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(600, bottom_y,  440, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")

A quick note on @Pankil's answer:

## Bracket coordinates depend on the size of the plot
## for instance,
## Pankil's suggested bracket coordinates do not work
## with the following sizing:
the_plot
grid.brackets(240, 440, 50, 440, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(570, 440, 381, 440, lwd=2, col="red")
## 440 seems to be off the graph...

And a couple more to showcase functionality of pBrackets:

#note, if you reverse the x1 and x2, the bracket flips:
the_plot
grid.brackets( 80, bottom_y, 220, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(440, bottom_y, 600, bottom_y, lwd=2, col="red")

## go vertical:
the_plot
grid.brackets(235, 200, 235, 300, lwd=2, col="red")
grid.brackets(445, 125, 445,  25, lwd=2, col="red")