How can I generate just pgf/TikZ images, not placed a whole page or slide?

Question

I'd like to generate only a pgf/TikZ image with LaTeX, but so far I just managed to insert it into a document. The problem is that so far I can only get a page/a beamer slide rather than just the image I'd like to have.

What document class should I specify to get what I want?

Answer 1

Assuming that you are producing the images in a separate document, you can use the standalone class.

For example, this will produce a cropped image by default.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [red] (0,0) rectangle (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Alternatively, you can include this file directly into your main file and have the image produced there.

Answer 2

Just another option is preview. With it you can also generate cropped figures but with a great advantage: you can have several figures on the same .tex file. The result will be a pdf file with a cropped figure per page. Then you can select which figure include in your document with 'page=' option of graphicx package.

One example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[active,pdftex,tightpage]{preview}
\usepackage{tikz}

\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (2,3);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (3,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document} 

Process this file and will obtain a pdf with two pages, then select which figure to include in your main document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
 \begin{figure}\centering
  \includegraphics[page=1]{Preview}%<-- Replace 'Preview' with your figures file's name
  \caption{First rectangle}
 \end{figure}
 \begin{figure}\centering
  \includegraphics[page=2]{Preview}%<-- Replace 'Preview' with your figures file's name
  \caption{Second rectangle}
 \end{figure}
\end{document}

Update:

With verson 1.x of standalone class you don't need to use preview package because my previous description is standalone class default behaviour with option tikz. So, with this simpler code:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (2,3);
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) rectangle (3,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document} 

you will also get a pdf file with two pages with one cropped figure in each page.

Answer 3

If you create the tikzpicture in an empty document,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}% http://ctan.org/pkg/pgf
\pagestyle{empty}% Remove page headers/footers
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  ...
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

you can use pdfcrop to trim the excess edges/whitespace.

Answer 4

What about KTikZ ?

It produces figures from tikz code.