Book Image

LaTeX Graphics with TikZ

By : Stefan Kottwitz
5 (3)
Book Image

LaTeX Graphics with TikZ

5 (3)
By: Stefan Kottwitz

Overview of this book

In this first-of-its-kind TikZ book, you’ll embark on a journey to discover the fascinating realm of TikZ—what it’s about, the philosophy behind it, and what sets it apart from other graphics libraries. From installation procedures to the intricacies of its syntax, this comprehensive guide will help you use TikZ to create flawless graphics to captivate your audience in theses, articles, or books. You’ll learn all the details starting with drawing nodes, edges, and arrows and arranging them with perfect alignment. As you explore advanced features, you’ll gain proficiency in using colors and transparency for filling and shading, and clipping image parts. You’ll learn to define TikZ styles and work with coordinate calculations and transformations. That’s not all! You’ll work with layers, overlays, absolute positioning, and adding special decorations and take it a step further using add-on packages for drawing diagrams, charts, and plots. By the end of this TikZ book, you’ll have mastered the finer details of image creation, enabling you to achieve visually stunning graphics with great precision.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share your thoughts
Download a free PDF copy of this book
1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with TikZ
Chapter 1: Getting Started with TikZ
Technical requirements
What is TikZ?
Alternative graphics packages
Benefits of TikZ
Installing TikZ
Working with the TikZ documentation
Creating our first TikZ figure
Summary
Further reading
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 2: Creating the First TikZ Images
Chapter 2: Creating the First TikZ Images
Technical requirements
Using the tikzpicture environment
Working with coordinates
Drawing geometric shapes
Using colors
Summary
Further reading
3
Chapter 3: Drawing and Positioning Nodes
Chapter 3: Drawing and Positioning Nodes
Technical requirements
Understanding nodes
Using shapes and anchors
Spacing within and around nodes
Positioning and aligning nodes
Adding labels and pins
Putting images into nodes
Summary
Further reading
4
Chapter 4: Drawing Edges and Arrows
Chapter 4: Drawing Edges and Arrows
Technical requirements
Connecting nodes by edges
Adding text to edges
Diving deeper into edge options
Drawing arrows
Using the to operation
Summary
Further reading
5
Chapter 5: Using Styles and Pics
Chapter 5: Using Styles and Pics
Technical requirements
Understanding styles
Defining and using styles
Inheriting styles
Using styles globally and locally
Giving arguments to styles
Creating and using pics
Summary
Further reading
6
Chapter 6: Drawing Trees and Graphs
Chapter 6: Drawing Trees and Graphs
Technical requirements
Drawing trees
Creating mind maps
Producing graphs
Positioning in a matrix
Summary
Further reading
7
Chapter 7: Filling, Clipping, and Shading
Chapter 7: Filling, Clipping, and Shading
Technical requirements
Filling an area
Understanding the path interior
Clipping a drawing
Reverse clipping
Shading an area
Summary
Further reading
8
Chapter 8: Decorating Paths
Chapter 8: Decorating Paths
Technical requirements
Pre- and post-actions for using a path multiple times
Understanding decorations
Exploring the available decoration types
Adjusting decorations
Summary
Further reading
9
Chapter 9: Using Layers, Overlays, and Transparency
Chapter 9: Using Layers, Overlays, and Transparency
Technical requirements
Using transparency
Drawing on background and foreground layers
Overlaying LaTeX content with TikZ drawings
Positioning pictures on the background of a page
Summary
Further reading
10
Chapter 10: Calculating with Coordinates and Paths
Chapter 10: Calculating with Coordinates and Paths
Technical requirements
Repeating in loops
Calculating with coordinates
Evaluating loop variables
Calculating intersections of paths
Summary
Further reading
11
Chapter 11: Transforming Coordinates and Canvas
Chapter 11: Transforming Coordinates and Canvas
Technical requirements
Shifting nodes and coordinates
Rotating, scaling, and slanting
Transforming the canvas
Summary
Further reading
12
Chapter 12: Drawing Smooth Curves
Chapter 12: Drawing Smooth Curves
Technical requirements
Manually creating a smooth curve through chosen points
Using a smooth plot to connect points
Specifying cubic Bézier curves
Using Bézier splines to connect given points
Using the Hobby algorithm for smoothly connecting points
Summary
Further reading
13
Chapter 13: Plotting in 2D and 3D
Chapter 13: Plotting in 2D and 3D
Technical requirements
Introducing plotting
Creating and customizing Cartesian axes, ticks, and labels
Using plotting commands and options
Filling the area between plots
Calculating plot intersections
Adding a legend
Using the polar coordinate system
Parametric plotting
Plotting in three dimensions
Summary
Further reading
14
Chapter 14: Drawing Diagrams
Chapter 14: Drawing Diagrams
Technical requirements
Creating flowcharts
Building relationship diagrams
Writing descriptive diagrams
Producing quantitative diagrams
Summary
Further reading
15
Chapter 15: Having Fun with TikZ
Chapter 15: Having Fun with TikZ
Technical requirements
Drawing cute creatures
Playing and crafting
Drawing world flags
16
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
17
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To get the most out of this book

For using TikZ, a TeX installation, such as TeX Live, MiKTeX, or MacTeX, is required on your computer. TikZ and LaTeX are compatible with most operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and other Unix operating systems. All code examples in this book have been tested with TeX Live 2023 on Debian Linux and with MacTeX 2023 on macOS Ventura. For those who do not wish to install LaTeX, code examples are available on https://tikz.org, which includes an online compiler that makes the code accessible also for smartphone and tablet users. Alternatively, you can register on https://overleaf.com to compile the examples obtained from GitHub or TikZ.org.

TikZ version 3.1.9.a has been used to develop and test the code examples in this book. All references to sections in the manual refer to that version. A future version may have a different section numbering.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

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