TikZ And PGF Tutorial

This page serves as a basic tutorial on using the TikZ package, which is part of Latex. All of the below examples are rendered with QuickLatex using the wonderful Wordpress plugin WP-QuickLatex. The code examples omit the common start, preamble and end code sections for clarity. These are:

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % ********** EXAMPLE CODE GOES HERE ********

\end{tikzpicture}

Drawing A Line

One of the simplist things you can do is draw a line…

% Draw a horizontal line from 0,0 to 2,0.
\draw (0,0) -- (2,0);

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a horizontal line from 0,0 to 2,0.
  \draw (0,0) -- (2,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

Making A Box

Adding more lines is easy, lets make a box…

% Draw A Box
\draw (0,0) -- (2,0) -- (2,2) -- (0,2) -- (0,0);

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a box
  \draw (0,0) -- (2,0) -- (2,2) -- (0,2) -- (0,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

Adding Text

You can use the node object to add text at specific places.

% Add text past the end of the line.
\draw (0,0) -- (2,0);
\node[anchor=west] at (2,0) {Text}

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a horizontal line from 0,0 to 2,0.
  \draw (0,0) -- (2,0);
  \node[anchor=west] at (2,0) {Text}
\end{tikzpicture}

Use the anchor to control where exactly the text goes. The anchor determines what part of the text is placed at the co-ordinate you give it. The code anchor west in above example means the west (left) part of the text will be placed at (2,0).

Lets Draw An Arrow!

Lines are not the only thing you can draw, lets draw an arrow. Notice the only difference from drawing a line is that \draw is now \draw[->].

% Draw an arrow
\draw[->] (0,0) -- (2,0);

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw an arrow
  \draw[->] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

How To Draw Graphs

Drawing The Grid

Grids can be useful to draw as the background to a graph. The following grid is drawn with grey, very thin lines so it suits well as a background.

% Draw a grid
\draw[step=1cm, gray, very thin] (-2,-2) grid (7,7);

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a grid
  \draw[step=1cm, gray, very thin] (-2,-2) grid (7,7);
\end{tikzpicture}

Now Lets Add Some Axes

Axis can added easily to the previous grid by using…

% Draw axis
\draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (5.5,0) node[anchor=north west] {x axis};
\draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (0,5.5) node[anchor=south east] {y axis};

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a grid
  \draw[step=1cm, gray, very thin] (-2,-2) grid (7,7);
  \draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (5.5,0) node[anchor=north west] {x axis};
  \draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (0,5.5) node[anchor=south east] {y axis};

\end{tikzpicture}

Adding Axis Marks

% Draw the axis marks on the graph...
\foreach \x in {0,1,2,3,4,5}
  \draw (\x cm,1pt) -- (\x cm,-1pt) node[anchor=north] {$\x$};
\foreach \y in {0,1,2,3,4,5}
  \draw (1pt,\y cm) -- (-1pt,\y cm) node[anchor=east] {$\y$};

\begin{tikzpicture}
  [+preamble]
    \usepackage{tikz}
  [/preamble]

  % Draw a grid
  \draw[step=1cm, gray, very thin] (-2,-2) grid (7,7);
  % Draw axis
  \draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (5.5,0) node[anchor=north west] {x axis};
  \draw[thick,->] (0,0) -- (0,5.5) node[anchor=south east] {y axis};
  % Draw axis marks
  \foreach \x in {0,1,2,3,4,5}
    \draw (\x cm,1pt) -- (\x cm,-1pt) node[anchor=north] {$\x$};
  \foreach \y in {0,1,2,3,4,5}
    \draw (1pt,\y cm) -- (-1pt,\y cm) node[anchor=east] {$\y$};

\end{tikzpicture}