Scaling a TikZ figure from an external file

Question

I would like to insert figures which were created with TikZ to my LaTeX document.

I suppose that if I create the TikZ figure inside the document, that wouldn't be a problem - I'd just play with the scale value which comes right after \begin{tikzpicture}. However, sometimes the figure is too complicated for it to be written explicitly in the LaTeX document, so I create the figure in a different file and use \input{foo.tikz}. The problem with that is that I don't see how to scale it to fit the rest of the document.

Answer 1

You can set the every picture locally in a group around the input file to set any option which should be used for the tikzpicture in that file.

\begingroup
\tikzset{every picture/.style={scale=0.3}}%
\input{sometikzpic}%
\endgroup

However, if you have other tikzpictures inside nodes of the main picture they will also be affected (twice I mean). In this case, \tikzset{every picture/.style={scale=0.3,every picture/.style={}}} might work better.

---

Note that scale scales only coordinates. Text is not affected. You might want to scale the whole picture all together. For this use \scalebox{<factor>}{\input{<file>}} or
\resizebox{<width>}{!}{\input{<file>}}. This both macros come from graphics which is loaded already by tikz.

Also have a look at the standalone class, especially the new \includestandalone[<options>]{<file>} from v1.0beta which will include subfiles and scales them if requested, like \includegraphics does for images.

Answer 2

If inside foo.tex you set the scale to \tkzscl or some other user macro, you can then set it like so:

\def\tkzscl{0.3}
\input{foo}

This way, you can set the scale of the picture in the main file.

foo.tex should then look like this:

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\tkzscl]
\draw (0,0) -- (1,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

Or whatever…

Answer 3

I know this has been answered, so here's a little trick to use these answers.

-1- Put this after your \usepackages and before your \begin{document}:

\newcommand{\inputTikZ}[2]{%  
     \scalebox{#1}{\input{#2}}  
}

-2- Use it like this to create a figure:

\begin{figure}  
\begin{centering}  
    \inputTikZ{0.5}{mytikzfile.tkz}  
\end{centering}  
\label{fig:myFig}  
\caption{some caption for the figure}  
\end{figure}  

In this way, the syntax is similar to \includegraphics[scale=...]{filename}

Answer 4

It seems to me that you should use the tikzscale package. Supposing your complicated tikz picture is in the file drawing.tikz, you could do something like:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{drawing.tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\draw[red,thick,dashed] (0,0) -- (2,1);
\draw (1,1) node[below] {$a+b^2$};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}


\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzscale}

\begin{document}
    \begin{figure}
        \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{drawing.tikz}
        \caption{A nice drawing.}
    \end{figure}
\end{document}

The same approach also works for related packages, for instance tikz-3dplot, or plots drawn with pgfplots:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{plot.tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    ylabel={Something },
    xlabel={Something else},
]

\addplot[red,thick,domain=-2:2,samples=100] {exp(-x)+4*sin(deg(x))-x^2};
\addplot[blue,ultra thick,domain=-2:2,samples=100] {2*cos(deg(x))+x};

\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.14}
\usepackage{tikzscale}

\begin{document}
    \begin{figure}
        \includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=60mm]{plot.tikz}
        \caption{A nice plot.}
    \end{figure}
\end{document}

Answer 5

Following the style presented by fiacobelli's answer.

On Preamble insert the packages

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{adjustbox}

My advice is to create a new command

\newcommand{\figTikzAdjustShortCap}[4]
{   
    \centering
    \adjustbox{#1}{\input{#2}}
    \caption[#4]{#3}
}

You may create variations changing the "adjustbox" line to:

\resizebox{#1\linewidth}{#2\linewidth}{\input{#3}}

or

\scalebox{#1}{\input{#2}}

remembering to correct the number of inputs of the \newcommand.

This follow the same standard I use for includegraphics:

\newcommand{\figIncLongCap}[3]
{   
    \centering
    \includegraphics[#1]{#2}
    \caption{#3}
}

I like it because let me change the caption position of all figure in a single move.

And you may use it inside Figure environment, where "Fig_Tikz" is a .tex file.

\begin{figure}[h]
    \figTikzAdjustLongCap
    {width = 0.8\linewidth, keepaspectratio, trim = 1.5cm 2cm 3cm 0cm, clip = true}
    {Fig_Tikz}
    {Tikz with \textit{AdjustBox} and \textit{Trim} Caption}
    \label{Fig_Tikz}
\end{figure}

This results gives you the same structure of a includegraphic command:

\begin{figure}[h]
    \figIncLongCap
    {width = 0.5\linewidth, trim = 0cm 1cm 0cm 0cm, clip = true}
    {Fig_not_tikz}
    {Fig not Tikz Caption.}
    \label{Fig_not_tikz}
\end{figure}

This option let us work and format a \input exactly like a \includegraphic.

I prefer to use the figure environment because of the label highlight and "click and found" features of TexStudio and others LaTeX editors.

Answer 6

When using \input to import a figure consisting of a PGFPlots axis, I found that

\begingroup
\pgfplotsset{every axis/.style={scale=2}}
\input{tikzfig}
\endgroup

was the best solution to scale only the axes without changing nor the ticks nor the axes labels font.