# Every draw style

I frequently use every node/.style={blue,draw} to set style for every node as in the MWE below

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={blue,draw}]
\node {Text};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


I have tried to apply this method to draw not node, but I failed to it. Here is my code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every draw/.style={->,red,thick}]
\draw(0,0)--(5,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


How can we achieve this?

There is no every draw available. One possible way is to style every path.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every path/.style={->,red,thick}]
\draw(0,0)node[left]{$A$}--(5,0)node[right]{$B$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


An alternative solution is to globally set draw for every picture. In this way, color specification does not affect node!

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\tikzset{every picture/.style={->,draw=red,thick}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw(0,0)node[left]{$A$}--(5,0)node[right]{$B$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


• This will also affect nodes. Apr 7, 2016 at 7:36
• @TorbjørnT. Yep! you are right. But it seems there is no easy way to style only draw. Apr 7, 2016 at 7:47
• I don't know of any, but there might be a way. A workaround would be to place all the \draws in a scope environment and add the every path style to the scope options. Apr 7, 2016 at 7:58

As other answers have said, you can set every path, but that changes the node styles. One way around this is to set every node just afterwards:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[every path/.style={->,red,thick},
every node/.style={draw,blue,thin}]
\draw(0,0)--(5,0) node[rectangle] {XX} -- (5,-1);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=stealth, every node/.style={midway, sloped, font=\tiny},
decoration={show path construction,
lineto code={
\draw [red, thick,->] (\tikzinputsegmentfirst) -- (\tikzinputsegmentlast);},}]
\path [decorate] (0,0) -- (3,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


• You cant use node since you set "draw style". I suggest to use tikzlibrary decorations.pathreplacing to set the decoration "path construction". More info see in tikz-pgf manual by T. Tantau Apr 7, 2016 at 5:39
• I got the idea now! Thank you for your pointing out. Actually, I misunderstood about key-val in tikz-pgf. I can just change every draw/.style={->,red,thick} to every path/.style={->,red,thick} Apr 7, 2016 at 5:51
• Ok, if you dont mind, show your solution here. Will be helpful for people) Apr 7, 2016 at 5:55

Following up on the comment above, here is a demo using every path in a scope environment to achieve a style effect on a group of paths, including nodes. Note the draw operations before and after the scope get default styling.

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\draw (0,0) rectangle ++(4,4);

\begin{scope}[every path/.style={draw, line width=2.0mm, color=red}]
\draw (1,1) -- ++(4,0);
\draw (2,2) rectangle ++(3,3);
\node at (3,3) {Narf};
\end{scope}

\draw (3,3) -- ++(4,0);
\node[draw] at (6,6) {Poit};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


To apply this technique and have the style apply to draw but not node, put all draw commands within the scope and keep all node commands outside the scope.

• Welcome to TeX - LaTeX! As this is still styling the nodes, I don't see how this helps the OP. Jun 28, 2017 at 15:31
• @AndrewSwann The point is to be able to write your style info once using every path, instead of having to re-write it for every path/node. But by organizing the code using scope, you can also keep some paths/nodes with your default style. In other words, this doesn't style any nodes that are outside the scope. Jun 28, 2017 at 15:38
• I'm sure it's a very simple example if you've been using tikz for any length of time, but this is all quite new to me. Jun 28, 2017 at 15:40
• @AndrewSwann I have added a \node to the example, specifically outside the scope, to show that not all nodes get the style using this technique. Jun 28, 2017 at 15:49
• I agree with you that scoping is useful, but it doesn't answer the OP's question. Jun 28, 2017 at 16:40