# How do I draw a box with these exact dimensions?

I'd like a box that looks exactly like this, width 5 units, height 7 units, each dot measuring 1 by 1 unit:

I've tried the following (including fiddling with the numbers):

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[thick,dotted] (0,0) rectangle (0.2, 0.3);
\end{tikzpicture}


But the above code produces something imperfect like:

\documentclass[tikz,border=3.14pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.05]
\foreach \X in {0,2,4}
{\fill (\X,0) rectangle ++(1,1);
\fill (\X,6) rectangle ++(1,1); }
\foreach \X in {2,4}
{\fill (0,\X) rectangle ++(1,1);
\fill (4,\X) rectangle ++(1,1); }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


UPDATE: \fill instead of \filldraw.

• Awesome thanks. Is there an easy way I could scale up or down the size of this box without fiddling with each individual number? – dtcm840 Apr 11 '18 at 3:51
• @dtcm840 Yes. Just use \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=2] instead of \begin{tikzpicture} in oder to double the size, or \begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=1.5] in order to stretch its horizontal dimension by 50%. – user121799 Apr 11 '18 at 3:56
• When I try to scale it down (e.g. to \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.05]), now the spaces between the dots are smaller than each dot. Any suggestions on what to do? – dtcm840 Apr 11 '18 at 4:00
• @dtcm840 You're right. My stupid mistake. This came from me using \filldraw instead of \fill. So the line width added to the size of the boxes. I fixed that. – user121799 Apr 11 '18 at 4:19
• Cheers mate, works perfect now. Thanks for taking the time and effort to help me. – dtcm840 Apr 11 '18 at 4:30

An alternative solution with a dashed pattern. In this case the rectangle is drawn with four lines whit origins which compensate the width of lines.

\documentclass[tikz,border=2mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\newcommand{\myunit}{1mm}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
mydash/.style={line width=\myunit,
dashed,
dash pattern=on \myunit off \myunit}]

\draw[mydash] (0,0) --++(5*\myunit,0);
\draw[mydash] (.5*\myunit,-.5*\myunit) --++(0,7*\myunit);
\draw[mydash] (0,6*\myunit) --++(5*\myunit,0);
\draw[mydash] (4.5*\myunit,-.5*\myunit) --++(0,7*\myunit);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}