# Decorations on multiple paths

I am trying to re-orient the decorations on two paths so that the arrows on the bottom one face the other way. I name the paths as follows

 \begin{tikzpicture} [decoration={markings,
mark=at position 1cm with {\arrow[line width=1pt]{>}},
mark=at position 5cm with {\arrow[line width=1pt]{>}}}]

\path[draw, line width=0.4, postaction=decorate,
name path=contour1]
plot[smooth] coordinates
{(1.3,0.1)(1.1,1.7)(-1.2,1.4)(-.9,0.1)} -- (1.3,0.1)
-- cycle;
\path[draw, line width=0.4, postaction=decorate,
name path=contour2]
plot[smooth] coordinates
{(1.3,-0.1)(1.1,-1.7)(-1.2,-1.4)(-.9,-0.1)} -- (1.3,-0.1)
-- cycle;
\end{tikzpicture}


However, I don't know how to make the decorations appear on only one path.

• Welcome to TeX.SE. You could create a separate style for the decoration and apply to the desired path. But your code is only a code snippet which is useful in explanations. It is always best to compose a fully compilable MWE that illustrates the problem including the \documentclass and the appropriate packages so that those trying to help don't have to recreate it. This is especially important for tikz as there are numerous libraries. – Peter Grill Dec 12 '15 at 20:20

Is this what you need? It's the easiest way: set a style, here called mymark, with a single argument. You can make them two or more, but in your case one was sufficient.

## Code

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{intersections,decorations.markings}

\tikzset{
mymark/.style={decoration={markings,
mark=at position 1cm with {\arrow[line width=1pt]{#1}},
mark=at position 5cm with {\arrow[line width=1pt]{#1}}}}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\path[draw, mymark={>}, line width=0.4, postaction=decorate, name path=contour1]
plot[smooth] coordinates
{(1.3,0.1)(1.1,1.7)(-1.2,1.4)(-.9,0.1)} -- (1.3,0.1) -- cycle;

\path[draw, mymark={<},line width=0.4, postaction=decorate, name path=contour2]
plot[smooth] coordinates
{(1.3,-0.1)(1.1,-1.7)(-1.2,-1.4)(-.9,-0.1)} -- (1.3,-0.1) -- cycle;

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}