TikZ is a higher-level drawing language built on top of the PGF graphics framework. For questions specifically about the PGF layer use {pgf-core} instead. Both tags are possible on the same question.
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votes
5answers
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How do I use pgfmathdeclarefunction to create define a new pgf function?
I'd like to define new function for pgf so I can use it in pgfplots. I'm trying to create a unit pulse function p(x) which has a value of 1 from x=0 to x=1, and 0 elsewhere.
I read the pgf manual on ...
11
votes
1answer
330 views
How can I use an hbox inside a TikZ environment for text dimension measurement?
I'm trying to use an \hbox to measure the dimensions of a certain text. This is working in normal text as in the following example:
\setbox37=\hbox{this is a text that I want to measure}
text width ...
59
votes
1answer
2k views
PowerPoint's “Smart Art” for TikZ?
This question led to a new package:
smartdiagram
I haven't been using PowerPoint for years, but today I immediately fell in love with its "Smart Art" feature (2010 version of PowerPoint). The ...
20
votes
2answers
2k views
Draw a bivariate normal distribution in TikZ
For a small class I want to draw a bivariate normal distribution and show where the means from the two variables meet in the space. Has anyone done this in TikZ?
49
votes
10answers
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What are the advantages of TikZ/PGF over PSTricks?
The first time I saw the PSTricks' 3D Galleries, I immediately felt in love with it. I have spent much time to learn and use it.
In this forum, I see many people using TikZ. I have not used TikZ yet. ...
30
votes
2answers
664 views
How to make a diagram composed of superimposed layers where the viewer can make each layer visible or invisible independently of the other layers?
This question led to a new package:
ocgx
(I have edited the question as ocgtools looks like it is the right package to use, rather than animate.)
I am trying to use LaTeX with the TikZ package ...
27
votes
1answer
604 views
Hobby path realization in convex hull approach
Motivation
In the answer
Highlight a group of nodes in a tikz tree, Jake suggested combining the convex hull approach from padded boundary of convex hull with the hobby path and I was really ...
21
votes
6answers
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What is the easiest way to draw 3D cube with TikZ?
I'm trying to find the easiest way to draw a 3D cube (it's for my UML diagram) with TikZ. Could you please give an example?
Like this:
17
votes
2answers
629 views
Making TikZ nodes hyperlinkable
I have a TikZ tree. Now I want to make the nodes click-able directing to relevant sections in the document (or directed to URLs). Some of the content in the nodes are not text. Is it possible to turn ...
26
votes
3answers
3k views
Using TikZ, how to draw an elliptical arc starting from point A to point B with the origin as its center where both radii are given?
I am new to TikZ and reading its manual now.
For the sake of exercises, I want to draw Batman's logo as follows:
Using TikZ, how to draw an elliptical arc starting from point A to point B with the ...
19
votes
2answers
820 views
TikZ rectangular node with different rounded corners
This is my minimal example:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[rounded corners=3pt, draw, fill=red!20]{Hallo!};
\end{tikzpicture}
...
26
votes
1answer
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Topological Quantum Field Theory diagrams with pstricks or tikz
This question led to a new package:
tqft — Blog: The TQFT Package
I'm going to write a brief note about topological quantum field theories, so I need to draw some copies of the "pair of ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
Bounding box is larger than expected when drawing a curved path
I have been working on logo for my department and I have the following code. The problem is that whenever I compile the diagram seems to be larger than the actual logo. I do not know what is the ...
15
votes
5answers
1k views
Outlining (filling) glyph outline with text in TikZ
Original question
Is there any automated or semi-automated way of tracing outermost outline or whole path of letters in TikZ?
That I would be able (e.g. by using positioned nodes) to draw a letter ...
10
votes
3answers
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Use macro as coordinate in pgfplots plot
I'm trying to come up with a solution to the question How to maintain consistency with TikZ and Pgfplots?. Essentially, what is needed is a way to save a coordinate as a macro (or a global key, ...
21
votes
7answers
4k views
How to draw a torus
Is there an easy way to draw a contour image of torus below with tikz? Or for that matter with any other graphics package.
19
votes
2answers
830 views
How can I put a coloured outline around fraction lines?
I use the contour package to put thick white outlines around labels in graphs, so they remain readable above the grid lines without taking up too much space.
Unfortunately, the package is not able to ...
18
votes
2answers
985 views
\boxed{}, TikZ and colored equation background
I wonder if someone could provide me with a simple MWE for using TikZ together with \boxed to produce a colored equation background. If possible with rounded corners.
I am using \boxed{} inside the ...
17
votes
1answer
324 views
What are most important variables set at the beginning of a tikzpicture? of a scope?
I asked a lot of questions about nested tikzpicture environments and if I agree with Andrew and Martin that nesting TikZ pictures isn't a good idea, it's interesting to know why. I gave some examples ...
28
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 ...
16
votes
4answers
834 views
A line of length \textwidth in TikZ
Why does the following latex document:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) -- (\textwidth,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
...
13
votes
4answers
873 views
Is there a way to draw TikZ lines on the “inside” or “outside” of a path?
In this answer, Jake points out
The miter option is more "correct" in that it doesn't add new corners
to a shape or introduce rounding. In some cases with very sharp
angles, the results might ...
13
votes
3answers
562 views
LaTeX equivalent of ConTeXt buffers
While creating a series of graphics (using TikZ) in ConTeXt, I frequently use ConTeXt's buffer to "copy-paste" code. Is there a LaTeX package that implements this feature?
Since most LaTeX users may ...
12
votes
2answers
522 views
How to align a series of TikZ pictures at the baseline
I am trying to align a series of pictures made up of letters, using TikZ. Having tried almost all combinations of the baseline key it is obvious I am missing something. Here is a MWE
(currently ...
7
votes
1answer
973 views
plot within a plot: zoom into a plot so that the magnified part is framed by axis with ticks and tick labels
I want to zoom into a plot much like it is possible by using the spy library but I want the spy-in node to contain its own ticks and tick labels with a finer grid than the original plot. To clarify ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Legend in tikzpicture
I am looking for a way to create a legend in a regular tikzpicture. I found this
Using a pgfplots-style legend in a plain-old tikzpicture
but I don't know
how to put the legend at the wanted ...
20
votes
1answer
2k views
How can I improve this family tree in TikZ?
To answer a question about how to draw family tree on LaTeX-Community.org, I created an example:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{trees}
\begin{document}
...
17
votes
1answer
911 views
TikZ library for Computer Science
Is there a Computer Science library for TikZ?
I am looking for a library for drawing standard data structures (array, linked list, stack, queue, pointers, trees, etc) in a consistent way.
I would ...
11
votes
3answers
234 views
tikz declare function and babel french option
I would like to declare functions in tikz for multiple uses of the same function within the code.
Sadly, it seems that the tikz "declare function" is not compatible with the french option in babel.
...
11
votes
3answers
346 views
TikZ parallel Edges between Nodes
I'm looking for a simple way to draw the following picture using TikZ. Namely, I would like to only specify the coordinates of the cities and then to connect them by edges using a \foreach loop. This ...
10
votes
1answer
702 views
Drawing a tree where many nodes have the same child in TikZ
I'm trying the draw a tree using the TikZ package, but I don't know how to draw a child node that has many parents. An example for that, is given by this picture
My problem is how to draw the level ...
10
votes
1answer
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9
votes
3answers
1k views
Horizontal row separation line in tikz matrix (like \hline in tabular)
In this question tikz-matrix-as-a-replacement-for-tabular a nice solution was given to let the matrix in tikz behave like tabular.
In this solution cell/.style={rectangle} was used to draw lines ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views
How to draw graphs in Latex?
I need to draw simple graph (for example Petersen Graph) in latex. I am using Kile in Ubuntu. I exactly don't know that which package should I use. Any suggestion with example is highly expected.
9
votes
2answers
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tikzstyle default node text with fill color
As a follow-up to this solution on defining the default text for a node, how can it be done with the use of a fill color? Note below that specification of a fill color abolishes the node text.
...
7
votes
3answers
191 views
How to draw a return arrow from node-3 to node-1
Say I have a code to draw a flow chart, I want now a arrow from node 3 to node 1, how can I do that?
1<--|
| |
2 |
| |
3----
MWE
\documentclass[class=article,border=0pt]{standalone}
...
6
votes
1answer
545 views
meta arrow tips
Page 316 of the tikz-pfg manual describes meta arrow tips and says that usually we do not want to have the tip scaled the same way as the supporting line. Is there a way to keep this feature, ie, when ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How to draw a cube with TikZ where all faces have a distinct color?
For each face, to show a distinct color I guess we have to use opacity, but at this point, this problem seemed out of my hand. Could anyone help me out?
My attempt
\documentclass{article}
...
4
votes
2answers
508 views
Nested foreach inside a TikZ matrix for both rows and columns
I'm trying to create a matrix using nested \foreach loops. I tried following the example I found in a previous question, but I keep getting errors.
Here is the code I tried to run:
...
13
votes
1answer
309 views
Moving tiles of the pattern in TikZ
One of the problems with patterns is that you never know how individual tiles are going to be laid over the area. E.g. if you use star pattern, sometimes stars on the left side of the area shall be ...
13
votes
1answer
1k views
PGFplots foreach equivalent to TikZ's with multiple variables separated by a slash
I like TikZ's capability to traverse multiple variables separated by a slash in the foreach (as in the example below). I am looking for something equivalent in PGFplots? I saw in the documentation ...
5
votes
2answers
611 views
How to Specify two level row and column labels of a matrix by braces?
I'm trying to write the following matrices.
I used the following code (given by Caramdir)
\documentclass{article}
% Load TikZ
\usepackage{tikz}
...
32
votes
3answers
1k views
Outsourcing TikZ code
My Tex files get very confusing since I have multiple long TikZ code in them.
How do you organize your files when it comes to TikZ?
32
votes
3answers
11k views
Correctly scaling a tikzpicture
I was wondering which is the correct way to scale a tikzpicture.
I tried with
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.50]
but what I obtain is that distances between elements are scaled but not their sizes or ...
24
votes
4answers
3k views
Draw mechanical springs in TikZ
Currently I am using the following path style to draw springs in TikZ
\tikzstyle{spring}=[thick,decorate,decoration={zigzag,pre length=0.1cm,post
length=0.1cm,segment length=6}]
for example
...
20
votes
4answers
3k views
Script to automate externalizing tikz graphics
Is there a script to automate externalizing tikz graphics?
(As suggested by Scott here)
19
votes
4answers
5k views
How to draw a line passing through a point and perpendicular to another?
I'm having a bit of a headache right now as I can't draw this basic figure:
A straight line goes through points A and B. Another line is perpendicular to AB and goes through an arbitrary point P.
I ...
26
votes
6answers
6k views
TikZ: Node at same x-coordinate as another node, but specified y-coordinate?
In TikZ, if I have a node (A), how do I create a node (B) with the same x-coordinate as (A), but a given y-coordinate?
22
votes
3answers
6k views
Add more anchors to standard TikZ nodes
I frequently find myself needing more than the standard anchors TikZ nodes provide, i.e. north, north east, east and so forth. I usually use coordinate calculations for this, as in the example below, ...
8
votes
2answers
3k views
Plotting bell shaped curve in TikZ-PGF
I want to create some bell shaped curves for demonstrating hypothesis testing in statistics. Can anybody help me drawing curves like shown in the following picture?
