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All.plotting in latex.how to guide

For plotting a certain classes of drawings (e.g., diagrams, graph) one should use frameworks like dot, mermaid, plantuml

For technical drawing there are several solutions, as described below

Tikz#

  • Language for producing vector graphics from a textual description

  • Several drawing programs can export figures as Tikz format (e.g., Inkspace, matplotlib, gnuplot)

  • Refs

    • Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGF/TikZ
    • Https://tikz.net/
    • Https://tikz.org/
    • Examples
      • Https://tikz.dev/
      • Https://texample.net/tikz/examples/
      • Https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/175969/block-diagrams-using-tikz
    • Web application
      • Https://tikzmaker.com/editor
    • Local editor
      • Https://tikzit.github.io/
    • Misc
      • Https://tex.stackexchange.com/?tags=tikz-pgf

Pgfplots#

  • Plots functions directly in Tex/Latex

  • Based on TikZ

  • Refs

    • Https://ctan.math.washington.edu/tex-archive/graphics/pgf/contrib/pgfplots/doc/pgfplots.pdf
    • Https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Pgfplots_package

Asymptote#

  • A descriptive vector graphics language
  • Provide a coordinate-based framework for technical drawing

  • It has a Python frontend

  • Refs

    • Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptote_(vector_graphics_language)
    • Https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/
    • Gallery
      • Https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/gallery/
    • Asymptote web application
      • Http://asymptote.ualberta.ca/

Plotting in Markdown#

How to Draw in Markdown#

We would like to use the same plots for both Latex and Markdown documents

We can use pandoc

TODO(gp): Consider extending ./dev_scripts_helpers/documentation/render_images.py to render also complex Latex, tikz

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/586285/pandoc-markdown-drawing-circuit-diagrams-using-circuitikz