Unable to change the color of axis.line

[FrankFromGermany]

I've just started to use ggplot2 and cowplot so I might be wrong.

For some reason the color of the axis.line element cannot be changed.
I can change the color of other elements, even axis.ticks.

[clauswilke]

Please provide a minimal, reproducible example of the problem.

[clauswilke]

You need to change axis.line.x and axis.line.y.

[FrankFromGermany]

@clauswilke
using axis.line.x and axis.line.y does work. I tried the following, which is in line with ggplot, but does not work:

library(cowplot)
p <- ggplot(mpg, aes(hwy, cty, color = factor(cyl))) +
geom_point(size = 2.5) +
theme(axis.line = element_line(color = "red", linetype = "dotted"))
p

[clauswilke]

If a theme changes a derived property (e.g. axis.line.x) then changing the parent property has no effect. It's a well-known issue in ggplot2 that has caused some confusing effects, e.g. tidyverse/ggplot2#2058.