Mrthfx

Assumed we have a simple ybar diagram including ymajorgrids.

Minimum Working Example (MWE):

documentclass{standalone}

usepackage{pgfplots}



begin{document}

    begin{tikzpicture}

        begin{axis}[

                    ybar                    = 1.5mm,

                    ymin                    = 0,

                    ymax                    = 300,

                    set layers              = true,

                    axis on top             = true,

                    symbolic x coords       = {Blub, Blab, Blop},

                    ymajorgrids             = true,

                    nodes near coords,

                    nodes near coords align = {vertical},

                    nodes near coords style = {text=black},

                    every node near coord/.append style={rotate=90, anchor=west,font=footnotesize},

                    ]

                addplot coordinates {(Blab,180) (Blop,180) (Blub,180)};%

        end{axis}

    end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

Screenshot of the result:

Screenshot of the issue:

Description of the issue:

As you can see, the command axis on top will cause a cross out of the ybar value nodes by the dominating ymajorgrid. How can I avoid the nodes to be crossed out (e.g. by putting the nodes on the very top layer)?

This problem is actually slightly more involved than I thought (or I am missing something basic). axis on top is a shorthand for some specific layer configuration, the details can be found in section 4.27.2 Using Predefined Layers of the pgfplots manual. For many purposes, one only needs to change the ordering of the layers, but as far as I can see this does not help with this very problem. What can one do? I looked up what nodes near coords does (yes, sometimes a simple less /usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgfplots/pgfplots.code.tex helps avoid the need to read the manual ;-): it sends specific instructions to scatter/@pre marker code. So all one needs to do is to append scatter/@pre marker code by pgfplotsonlayer{axis foreground}, and of course close the layer at the end by appending endpgfplotsonlayer to catter/@post marker code.

documentclass{standalone}

usepackage{pgfplots}

pgfplotsset{compat=1.16}

begin{document}

    begin{tikzpicture}

        begin{axis}[clip mode=individual,

                    ybar                    = 1.5mm,

                    ymin                    = 0,

                    ymax                    = 300,

                    set layers              = true,

                    axis on top             = true,

                    symbolic x coords       = {Blub, Blab, Blop},

                    ymajorgrids             = true,

                    nodes near coords,

                    nodes near coords align = {vertical},

                    nodes near coords style = {text=black},

                    every node near coord/.append style={rotate=90, anchor=west,

                    font=footnotesize},

                    scatter/@pre marker code/.append code={pgfplotsonlayer{axis foreground}},

                    scatter/@post marker code/.append code={endpgfplotsonlayer}

                    ]

                addplot coordinates {(Blab,180) (Blop,180) (Blub,180)};%                

        end{axis}

    end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

As you can see, the grid lines run in front of the bars but behind the nodes near coords.