{fun} concerns questions primarily posed for entertainment or intellectual challenges, not necessarily for academic or professional purposes
3
votes
1answer
32 views
Is there any TeX (or LaTeX) macropackage capable of rot13-encoding an ASCII text?
This might be a nice thing to obfuscate answers to quizzes (better than \rotatebox[c]{180}{...}). (I understand that this is trivial using LuaTeX, but I'd be interested in a generic TeX solution. ...
34
votes
5answers
2k views
How do we Draw a Bird in LaTeX
Yes, it's that time of the month again. It's time for somebody to ask how we can draw X in LaTeX. This time I'm asking the question and X is a bird.
The reason why I'm interested in this question is ...
12
votes
1answer
146 views
Where to get TeX Math Font
I apologise for a question that might seem naïve to many. However, I encountered a problem and a couple of hours of an intensive research didn't bring any results. Basically, I would like to have a ...
0
votes
0answers
34 views
What's the percentage of doublefree Questions on tex.stackexchange with an already good answer that David Carlisle improved upon [closed]
The title says it all. But for the question to be posted I had to enter this sentence as well.
74
votes
12answers
13k views
What is the most bizarre thing you have seen done with TeX
I think the questions says it all! :)
By TeX, I mean any derivative of TeX as long as the code is clearly a derivative of TeX, i.e. that it could belong on TeX.SX (and not pure Lua for example).
...
4
votes
1answer
105 views
Using ConTeXts cow font with pdfTeX
So I have really become intrigued with the Cow font of context, however I really wish I would be able to use this with latex. I found a place, where it listed the steps on what to do, but it was ...
69
votes
10answers
4k views
How can I draw an egg using TikZ?
I would like to draw an egg-format element, but I have only found ways of drawing ellipses.
6
votes
2answers
147 views
Moving thumbnails
I once saw a document with pictures in the top corner. If you rapidly thumb
thru the document the pictures appear to move. Is there a way to put a
series of thumbnails in the top corner of a document?
...
310
votes
7answers
59k views
How do I make my document look like it was written by a Cthulhu-worshipping madman?
I want to type up some spells from the RPG Call of Cthulhu and give them to my players. I could just type them up in Word or LaTeX, but that seems too...neat. I'd like to make these things look like ...
37
votes
4answers
1k views
How to create a Caesar's encryption disk using LaTeX
How can I create a Caesar's encryption disk with LaTeX?
I guess, the ultimate solution would take a arbitrary list of letters and calculate the spaces and angles for each letter automatically. So ...
29
votes
1answer
779 views
Helping cardinals elect the new Pope
Yes, we are talking about TeX and friends!
Edit: I decided to move the background motivation to the end of the question, since it seems to be kind of off-topic in the TeX context.
The following code ...
49
votes
9answers
2k views
Are there other “fun” packages like the “coffee stains” package?
I'm trying to convert some friends to LaTeX and have come up against a (to me) unexpected objection: there are too few packages that support "fun" (really), to which I responded:
I know there are ...
25
votes
2answers
861 views
Making a Calendar for TUG
This question is triggered by a post from Peter Wilson in comp.text.tex`.
Peter wrote: TUG members produced a calendar for 2012 and, if I remember correctly, for some previous years as well. I really ...
24
votes
3answers
1k views
Typesetting the entire Song That Never Ends
I've heard that LaTeX (and for that matter TeX) are Turing-complete, so it should be possible to produce an infinite loop. And indeed, a quick search reveals several questions in which users have ...
122
votes
9answers
12k views
How can we draw a Christmas tree with decorations, using TikZ?
I would like to use TikZ for drawing a christmas tree. Here's a start, I used the lindenmayersystems library for drawing a tree:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
...
14
votes
1answer
415 views
TikZ: Handdrawn boxes/arrows/circles for flowcharts
I saw the following style of boxes in Aditya's presentation as he mentioned it during his TeXTalk. I am almost positive that Aditya is using Metafun for this.
But I was wondering how would one go ...
190
votes
2answers
19k views
Create xkcd style diagram in TeX
The unique style of the diagrams at xkcd has an informative but nice hand-drawn touch. I guess they are actually drawn by hand but just recently on our partner site for Mathematica someone asked how ...
24
votes
1answer
678 views
Puzzle: How to compute Bringhurst's page style with TeX/Metapost/TikZ etc
In his book The Elements of Typographic Style, Bringhurst presents a hexagonal pattern for geometrically constructing the elements of the page layout.
Question: Can the dimensions be simply extracted ...
39
votes
5answers
2k views
Self-replicating (La)TeX document
Since TeX and LaTeX can print out any text, it should be possible to write a self-replicating document, i.e., a document that is typeset as a PDF/DVI of itself. Have you seen something like that?
14
votes
1answer
450 views
Trollface package
Does anybody know if there is a package containing troll-faces similar to the simpsons package, where you just write the \trollface to insert a picture of a troll-face (e.g. \Bart for the simpsons ...
67
votes
5answers
6k views
How can we display fireworks?
Soon we can celebrate the New Year. How can we use TikZ for drawing fireworks? For example like this, photographed by Kurume-Shimin, found on Wikipedia:
Click on Image search for getting further ...
34
votes
2answers
884 views
Text spirals with TikZ
I just ran across this, and I'm curious about whether it can be replicated in TeX...
Ideally one would have the spiral getting tighter and tighter as one got to the centre, as in
I know TikZ has ...
22
votes
1answer
3k views
Pirate Treasure Map
This one is mostly for fun, although seeing the TikZ tricks people come up with is often instructive. While I was looking for examples with torn pages, I ran across a few of these:
Can one draw ...
15
votes
1answer
518 views
How can we draw Christmas animations with TikZ?
In the spirit of How can we draw a Christmas tree with decorations, using TikZ?, how can we realize Christmas animations with TikZ?
For example:
or also:
41
votes
3answers
1k views
How to suppress page 13?
A lot of buildings have no 13th floor, some planes have no 13th row etc.
How do I set up a document that automatically suppresses page 13, figure 13, chapter 13 and so on, say, by jumping the ...
31
votes
2answers
2k views
How can we draw a Hannukah Menorah with decorations, using TikZ?
In the spirit of the festive season and How can we draw a Christmas tree with decorations, using TikZ?, I would like to use TikZ for drawing a Hannukah Menorah. There are many different styles of ...
32
votes
5answers
1k views
Please improve my logo to resemble our TeX.SX logo
It is free to use TikZ or PSTricks to answer my question. I want to recreate our TeX.SX logo. But my attempt is far from perfect. Please help me to make it more similar to the original one.
...
27
votes
2answers
710 views
Christmas theme
In the process of making a paper for school look good, I came to wonder, if there was such a thing as latex themes for regular papers? What I am think about in particular would be a Christmas theme, ...
33
votes
1answer
534 views
Chutes and Ladders
I am trying to make a Chutes and Ladders style game. I have managed to piece together a board, but I plan to change the location of squares, ladders, and slides for future boards. The ladder is a ...
21
votes
2answers
965 views
Draw a coat of arms in LaTeX
Over at academia.sx we are trying to create a community ad to try and get us promoted out of beta. We are looking to create a university type coat of arms/seal. I have seen some really great artwork ...
6
votes
3answers
408 views
Speedy LaTeXing
I am LaTeXing my notes for a maths class, and I'm wondering what TeX.SE has to say about tips and tricks that have helped them enter their LaTeX code that much faster. It can be anything from a ...
9
votes
1answer
609 views
Installing the comicsans package to MiKTeX
Consider this question theoretical in nature; an exercise to understand the TDS tree structure better. Assume one were attempting to install the comicsans package, which is part of neither of the two ...
8
votes
1answer
275 views
Combining paths before making them double
I must thank TeX Stack Exchange, especially for these questions:
Creating gears in TikZ
How can I invert a 'clip' selection within TikZ?
How to use plot in a foreach loop into a single path?
I ...
9
votes
1answer
196 views
created a fixed page number of an index entry
(First, I would like to state that I am aware that this is a ridiculous and idiotic question. It is for the purpose of a ridiculous and idiotic joke.)
I'd like to use \index to add an entry that will ...
42
votes
1answer
2k views
Cute document in LaTeX
My girlfriend is teacher at primary school, she's new using LaTeX and she needs to make a "cute document" for kids, but I don't know how change the parts, sections, numer of page and all this things ...
29
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I draw a cake using TikZ?
It is always someone's birthday. I would like to use TikZ to draw a birthday cake. There are all sorts of cakes. What I would like is a cake that looks nice and tasty. Preferably a cake with lots of ...
78
votes
12answers
7k views
Contest: Show Off Your Skillz in TeX & Friends [TeX.sx birthday]
Submission Deadline and Voting are over, thank you for participating!
Results
Academic
Gonzalo Medina – 31
Andy – 19
cmhughes – 11
mbork – 6
Other
Yiannis Lazarides – 38
szantaii – 20
Ant – ...
10
votes
1answer
757 views
Recreating the xkcd Movie Narrative Chart
To teach myself TikZ, one of the things I've done is recreate interesting graphs/charts/etc. One of my bigger projects is attempting to recreate the xkcd Movie Narrative Charts comic.
Different ...
11
votes
3answers
766 views
tombstones and beer mugs
I'm trying to find an alternative to the standard tombstone qed symbol for more informal papers.
I initially thought of an empty square with Pub written inside, but what would actually be better would ...
46
votes
9answers
3k views
LaTeX/Math jokes [closed]
Lighten up a bit guys. How about the following
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
If~~$\displaystyle\lim_{x\rightarrow8}\frac{1}{x{-}8}=\infty$
...
16
votes
3answers
802 views
Obfuscating TeX
Given TeX's system of catcodes, I imagine that one can obfuscate TeX to a remarkable degree. With a view to learning more about the internals of TeX, I ask: How might I go about adding a block of ...
39
votes
1answer
2k views
Are there any (La)TeX Easter Eggs?
Given Donald Knuth's legendary sense of humor, one cannot help but suppose he would have succumbed to the temptation to add in a "special" command or two that did something unsuspected or unusual just ...
