Remove grid, background color, and top and right borders from ggplot2

Question

I would like to reproduce the plot immediately below by using ggplot2. I can come close, but cannot remove the top and right borders. Below I present several attempts usin

Answer 1

Recent updates to ggplot (0.9.2+) have overhauled the syntax for themes. Most notably, opts() is now deprecated, having been replaced by theme(). Sandy's answer will still (as of Jan '12) generates a chart, but causes R to throw a bunch of warnings.

Here's updated code reflecting current ggplot syntax:

library(ggplot2)
a <- seq(1,20)
b <- a^0.25
df <- as.data.frame(cbind(a,b))

#base ggplot object
p <- ggplot(df, aes(x = a, y = b))

p +
  #plots the points
  geom_point() +

  #theme with white background
  theme_bw() +

  #eliminates background, gridlines, and chart border
  theme(
    plot.background = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.major = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
    panel.border = element_blank()
  ) +

  #draws x and y axis line
  theme(axis.line = element_line(color = 'black'))

generates: