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.
183
votes
2answers
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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 ...
124
votes
3answers
14k views
Drawing on an image with TikZ
Recently I have learned how to draw simple stuff with TikZ. I really like it. Now I wonder if it is possible to draw with TikZ on a image. Instead of pasting a image in Illustrator and adding some ...
120
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}
...
87
votes
6answers
18k views
Is it possible to change the size of an arrowhead in TikZ/PGF?
I'm trying to draw an arrow with a bigger head than normal. Is it possible without changing the style of the line itself?
69
votes
6answers
3k views
How productive are you with TikZ?
First, I must say I have very limited knowledge about PGF/TikZ. Most things I do are blind copy-pastes of examples I find on the Internet with lots of trial-and-error and googling around.
After ...
68
votes
8answers
5k views
Simulating hand-drawn lines
I am working on a project that will have some vector graphics, perhaps using TikZ (or a similar tool). All of the graphics consists of lines, in shades of gray. However, the lines from TikZ appear too ...
67
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.
66
votes
5answers
5k 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 ...
64
votes
8answers
3k views
Sieve of Eratosthenes in tikz
I am writing notes for my students under the topic of prime factorization and I needed to illustrate the Sieve of Eratosthenes and this is what I came up with in tikz:
\documentclass{article}
...
62
votes
1answer
1k views
pgf-Tikz QR code generator
I am looking for a Tikz QR code generator. I am aware of pst-barcode as well as several "local" programs, a luatex solution and web services to do this. Nevertheless, if at all possible, I would much ...
59
votes
3answers
2k views
Fundamental differences : PSTricks, TikZ/PGF and others
OK, since this is a pretty vague and subjective question. I need to set up some borders around the discussion that I intend to benefit from. But before anything, I certainly do NOT want to excite the ...
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 ...
58
votes
6answers
2k views
Curve through a sequence of points with Metapost and TikZ
This question led to a new package:
hobby
I found Metapost best for drawing complex smooth curves (i.e., Bezier, splines), since you do not have to directly specify Bezier control points. ...
55
votes
6answers
2k views
What is the minimum one needs to know to use TikZ?
I am fed up with the poor quality of the pictures in the papers written by my graduate students and am trying to convince them to use TikZ. I know of three ways to begin learning TikZ:
The TikZ ...
53
votes
4answers
3k views
How to create magnified subfigures and corresponding boxes for portions of a large image
Updated Below
I hope the title gets at what I'm trying to do. I have a large image for a thesis on an image processing topic, and I want show the large image, with zoomed in boxes (typically with the ...
52
votes
5answers
8k views
Cool Text Highlighting in LaTeX
LaTeX has soul. ConTeXt, of course, has beautifully marked up "sharpie" highlighting, where you can put sweet hightligher under your text for free!
In the pictured example, you can see highlights ...
50
votes
3answers
2k views
How to draw a Sankey Diagram using TikZ
I would like to draw something similar to this (not exactly):
using TikZ. Ideally I would be able to set the width by variables and rejoin two flows into one again. Is there a good way to do this?
...
49
votes
10answers
4k views
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. ...
49
votes
3answers
5k views
Putting a timeline for dates in moderncv
This question led to a new package:
moderntimeline
I just had the idea of using a timeline to specify dates in my CV. I've made a mockup in Inkscape:
The idea, as you see it, is to display ...
47
votes
2answers
850 views
Summary of Tikz commands
Many times, when I'm coding a tikz-picture, I don't remember the command syntax or the name of one option, and I have to look in pgf-manual is not very short. Does anybody has a summary of Tikz ...
46
votes
10answers
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List of available TikZ libraries with a short introduction
Quick links:
Summary
❧ Intersections library
❧ Arrow tips library
❧ Calc library
❧ Mindmap Library
❧ Shapes library
❧ Paper Folding Library
❧ Chains Library
❧ Shapes library
Very often I ...
46
votes
2answers
932 views
Torn paper: matching up the torn edges
I recently asked a question on creating a torn paper effect. JLdiaz provided an absolutely beautiful answer, which I have used (with a very minor modification) to indicate the way in which a document ...
45
votes
10answers
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Good way to make \textcircled numbers?
I'm trying to make some good-looking numbers in a circle, using the simple command:
\textcircled{1}
However, the circle is misaligned vertically with the number, and look a bit sloppy:
Any ...
43
votes
5answers
4k views
How can I create a pdf document exactly as big as my tikz picture?
I often create pictures in tikz that I want to either send to someone, or include in an email. The problem with that is that there is a big white space around and and especially below my pictures.
To ...
43
votes
7answers
11k views
How to draw Venn diagrams (especially: complements) in LaTeX
What I am up to is to write some exercises dealing with logical formulas for my students, like:
And the students should draw these formulas on Venn diagrams. At the end of the lesson, I really ...
42
votes
2answers
4k views
Should \tikzset or \tikzstyle be used to define TikZ styles?
The PGF/TikZ manual states in section 12.4 Using Graphic Options, page 120 (v2.10), that TikZ styles can be set using:
\tikzset{my style/.style={<tikz options>},...}
However, in several ...
40
votes
10answers
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40
votes
4answers
2k views
How to scale a tikzpicture to \textwidth
I would like to scale my tikzpicture to exactly (or a proportion of) the \textwidth
Of course I could play with the [scale=0.5] option until I found the right value, but I assume there must be an ...
40
votes
5answers
19k views
How to install a current version of TikZ?
TikZ is undergoing lots of development with new features being added, but the versions distributed with standard TeX releases are often a little old. How do I get the latest version? If I want to be ...
40
votes
2answers
1k views
Recreating a guilloche with TikZ
One of my last questions talked about certificates and I got great answers. Now my questions is, can one recreate a guilloche in TikZ like the one shown below:
or may be a border like
40
votes
2answers
7k views
Easy curves in TikZ
I find myself needing to draw lots of elegantly curved paths in TikZ. Ideally, I'd just specify a series of points, and TikZ would calculate the extra data itself to draw a nice series of curves ...
40
votes
1answer
650 views
Toward a Stamper Package
Imagine that you want to simulate a hand stamp on every page in some large documents. It must be an imperfect print, with random page-to-page variations in ink intensity, fading, rotation and blur. ...
37
votes
5answers
2k views
What are the relative strengths of TikZ and Asymptote?
I want to compare TikZ and Asymptote for their abilities in 2D & 3D functional plot and other general purpose, simple drawings.
What are the strong aspects of TikZ over Asymptote?
37
votes
2answers
12k views
How to scale a tikzpicture including texts?
It seems that the scale option scales only the length of lines, but not the size of texts. For instance, 1 and true and not scaled in the following code.
\begin{tikzpicture}[thick, scale=0.6]
\draw ...
36
votes
4answers
973 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 ...
36
votes
6answers
2k views
Materials for learning TikZ
I feel intimidated in learning TikZ. I was wondering if there are some nice materials (or just your replies) at different level:
for providing big picture, which is
important to beginners to not ...
36
votes
1answer
745 views
How to make a realistic old rubber stamp?
There are examples of how to make nice circular logos in Calligraphic logo in tikz and Recreating a logo (text around a circle), but I'm looking to mimic the impression with a traditional rubber ...
34
votes
4answers
2k views
Penrose tiling in TikZ
How can I auto-generate a Penrose tiling by TikZ? Here's my code for Mathematica:
GG = (Sqrt[5]+1)/2;
standardthin = {1/2+Sqrt[GG^2-(1/2)^2] I , 0, 1};
standardthick = {GG/2+Sqrt[1-(GG/2)^2] I, 0, ...
34
votes
4answers
4k views
How do you draw the “snake” arrow for the connecting homomorphism in the snake lemma?
How does one draw the "snake" arrow for the connecting homomorphism when using the snake lemma?
I'd also be interested in drawing similar arrows act as "carriage returns" when considering a long ...
34
votes
4answers
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.
I welcome any answers but I'm especially keen on ...
33
votes
3answers
2k views
3-dimensional histogram in pgfplots
I have a simple 3d histogram
which I want to import into pgfplots, e.g. using matlab2tikz or by hand.
PGFplots does not offer 3d histograms.
Is there an easy way to do this?
33
votes
2answers
4k views
Drawing simple 3D cylinders in TikZ
I'm trying to draw some simple 3D objects in TikZ. I can do spheres and cuboids okay, but I'm struggling with circular cylinders: When rotating the scene (I use tikz-3dplot for this), the end faces ...
33
votes
2answers
789 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 ...
33
votes
1answer
3k views
Difference between “right of=” and “right=of” in PGF/TikZ
In the PGF/TikZ manual, sometimes I see the option right of=somenode instead of right=of somenode. They look very similar, but the effects are different. The distance between nodes positioned with ...
32
votes
3answers
6k views
Drawing Mechanical Systems in LaTeX
I really like CircuiTikZ for drawing diagrams in my LaTeX documents. However I mostly draw mechanical and not electronic systems, which is why I'm looking for some similar way to draw mechanical ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
Vertical and horizontal lines in pgf-tikz
It is easy to produce a path between two nodes consisting of a single horizontal and a single vertical line (from the manual):
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) node(a) [draw] {A} (1,1) node(b) ...
7
votes
1answer
49 views
pdflatex nonstopmode with TikZ stops compiling
I compiled a TikZ code using pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode. Depending on code errors, compiling stops. I want to know what went wrong. Let me show you two cases, both of which involve a code error ...
5
votes
1answer
108 views
Filling the arrow tip and not the path using two different colors
I have a small problem with some arrows but I can't seem to find a solution. Please note that this question is different from Setting fill color for TikZ arrow tips only (and not the path itself), ...
3
votes
1answer
46 views
How to color numbers in axis?
I want to color the numbers 3 in blue and -1 in green as show in the picture below.
My code is this :
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
how to make this circles?
I would like to make in LaTeX these circles.
How can we add the words in them? The color for the big one?
