# Span TikZ Picture Across Two Columns

I'm restricted to writing a paper with\documentclass[twocolumn,11pt]{article}, but I want to create a tikzpicture that spans across both of the columns, filling the width of the page. I have tried placing it in a figure and using figure*, and other figure options, but none of that works.

The code for my tikzpicture is here.

\definecolor {processblue}{cmyk}{0.96,0,0,0}
\begin {center}
\begin {tikzpicture}[-latex ,auto ,node distance =1.8cm and 1.5cm ,on grid ,
semithick ,
state/.style ={ circle ,top color =white , bottom color = processblue!20 ,
draw,processblue , text=blue , minimum width =1 cm}]
\node[state] (S) {$S$};
\node[state] (W) [above right =of S] {$W$};
\node[state] (X) [right =of W] {$X$};
\node[state] (Y) [right =of X] {$Y$};
\node[state] (Z) [right =of Y] {$Z$};
\node[state] (D) [below right =of Z] {$D$};
\path (S) edge [bend left =0] node[above left = .3 cm] {$R_{sw}$} (W);
\path (W) edge  [bend right =0](S);
\path (W) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{wx}$}(X);
\path (X) edge [bend right =0](W);
\path (X) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{xy}$}(Y);
\path (Y) edge [bend right =0](X);
\path (Y) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{yz}$}(Z);
\path (Z) edge [bend right =0](Y);
\path (Z) edge [bend left =0] node[above right = .3 cm] {$R_{zd}$}(D);
\path (D) edge [bend right =0](Z);
{\tiny }\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}

• What's precisely the problem with figure*? – egreg Dec 21 '13 at 12:16
• @egreg a tikzpicture in a figure* takes on the column width, not the figure width. – JAB Apr 27 '16 at 17:40
• @JAB A tikzpicture takes its own width. – egreg Apr 27 '16 at 17:44
• @egreg You seem to be correct, I thought I had observed the dimensions changing based on column size but after some more experimentation it seems not. – JAB Apr 27 '16 at 17:47
• @JAB In Jesse's solution, the picture is magnified by adjustbox – egreg Apr 27 '16 at 17:48

This is a way to span the tikzpicture across two column. adjustbox package is used where the width is set to \linewidth for the span. width=\columnwidth would back to regular result.

Code

\documentclass[twocolumn,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc,positioning}
\begin{document}
\definecolor {processblue}{cmyk}{0.96,0,0,0}
\begin {figure*}%[!hbtp]
\centering
\begin {tikzpicture}[-latex ,auto,node distance =1.8cm and 1.5cm ,on grid,semithick,
state/.style ={ circle ,top color =white , bottom color = processblue!20,
draw,processblue , text=blue , minimum width =1 cm}]
\node[state] (S) {$S$};
\node[state] (W) [above right =of S] {$W$};
\node[state] (X) [right =of W] {$X$};
\node[state] (Y) [right =of X] {$Y$};
\node[state] (Z) [right =of Y] {$Z$};
\node[state] (D) [below right =of Z] {$D$};
\path (S) edge [bend left =0] node[above left = .3 cm] {$R_{sw}$} (W);
\path (W) edge  [bend right =0](S);
\path (W) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{wx}$}(X);
\path (X) edge [bend right =0](W);
\path (X) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{xy}$}(Y);
\path (Y) edge [bend right =0](X);
\path (Y) edge [bend left =0] node[above = .3 cm] {$R_{yz}$}(Z);
\path (Z) edge [bend right =0](Y);
\path (Z) edge [bend left =0] node[above right = .3 cm] {$R_{zd}$}(D);
\path (D) edge [bend right =0](Z);
{\tiny }
\end{tikzpicture}