# Scale tikz figure to a percentage of \textwidth

A user asked a question about scaling a figure to a factor of \textwidth and got an answer like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{file}
\end{document}


however, I'm not sure how to apply this to my document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[!h]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
%
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{This figure has a width which is a factor of \\textwidt}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


I've tried

\begin{figure}[!h, width=\textwidth]


but that didn't work.

• That solution would work if you produce a single file containing the image produced by the tikz. – Sigur Jan 22 '14 at 0:15
• @sigur yes but I have dozens of tikz figures and I don't want the source for my document to be spread across dozens of files that I need to keep, backup, and maintain constantly. There must be a way to scale it. \resizebox[\textwidt][!]{...} doesn't seem to work either. – user41709 Jan 22 '14 at 0:25
• In this case you have to scale the tikz using \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.7] for example. But this will change the scale of coordinates. – Sigur Jan 22 '14 at 0:26
• \resizebox works. You should use it as follows: \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{\begin{tikzpicture}...\end{tikzpicture}} – Herr K. Jan 22 '14 at 0:30
• The answers to this question, tex.stackexchange.com/q/17293/18228, may be helpful. – Herr K. Jan 22 '14 at 0:34

You need tikzscale package. Save the contents

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (2cm);
\node at (0,0) {Me};
\end{tikzpicture}


as myfig.tikz (say) and use \includegraphics

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzscale}
\usepackage{filecontents}    %% only for this demo
\begin{filecontents*}{myfig.tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (2cm);
\node at (0,0) {Me};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{myfig.tikz}
\caption{This figure has a width which is a factor of text width}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.2\textwidth]{myfig.tikz}
\caption{This figure has a width which is a factor of text width}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


Unlike \resizebox, the fonts are not scaled in-appropriately. If you want to scale fonts too, use \begin{tikzpicture}[transform shape] instead of \begin{tikzpicture}.

With \resizebox from graphicx:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\resizebox{0.5\textwidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (2cm);
\node at (0,0) {Me};
\end{tikzpicture}
}%
\caption{This figure has a width which is a factor of text width}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\resizebox{0.2\textwidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (2cm);
\node at (0,0) {Me};
\end{tikzpicture}
}%
\caption{This figure has a width which is a factor of text width}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


• If the fonts are not scaled, then unfortunately I cannot use this method. – user41709 Jan 22 '14 at 0:43
• @user41709 Scaling fonts is a bad idea. Any way it is your document. You can use \resizebox then. – user11232 Jan 22 '14 at 0:45
• @user41709: You can still use this method, I think, if you pass the transform shape option to tikzpicture. – Herr K. Jan 22 '14 at 0:46
• @HarishKumar The issue is I've spent weeks on all the content and figures for one document, and now for a different conference we need to use a template with a significantly narrower text width. I simply do not have the time to re-create these figures for the larger page margins. – user41709 Jan 22 '14 at 0:50
• So my best option is to compile each figure as a separate PDF file, and include them with a scale? That will scale everything correctly? – user41709 Jan 22 '14 at 0:59

You may want to consider package adjustbox as well.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[!h]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (10,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{This figure uses no factor}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[!h]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (10,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{This figure uses 0.5 factor}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[!h]
\centering