A very minimal introduction to TikZ

Jacques Cremer
Toulouse School of Economics
[email protected]
March 11, 2011
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Setting up a picture 3
3 Drawing lines and curves 4
3.1 Simple straight lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Scaling pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3 Arrows and the like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 Changing the thickness of lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.5 Dashes and dots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.6 Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.7 Pictures in the middle of the text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.8 Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.9 Plotting functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 Filling up areas 12
4.1 Filling up simple areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 Filling up arbitrary areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 Putting labels in pictures 13
6 Integration with Beamer 16
7 Hints and tricks 17

Thanks to Christophe Bontemps, Michel-Benot Bouissou and Florian Schuett for com-
ments which have improved this document.
1
8 Examples 17
8.1 Hotelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.1.1 The whole picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.1.2 Step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2 Vertical dierentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2.1 The whole picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.2.2 Step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.3 A curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8.3.1 The whole picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8.3.2 Step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8.4 Tangency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8.4.1 The whole picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8.4.2 Step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8.5 Consumer surplus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.5.1 The whole picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.5.2 Step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.6 Plotting lots of curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9 Conclusion 24
2
1 Introduction
The aim of this document is to provide the minimum useful introduction to the
TikZ package (written by Till Tantau), which enables you to do nice gures in
L
A
T
E
X. I hope it will encourage for further exploration, but I also believe that
at least 70% of the gures found in the economic literature can be drawn with
the commands I present here.
1
There are certainly mistakes left in this document. Be careful and if you
nd a mistake, drop me an e-mail!
The latest version of this document can be found at http://bit.ly/gNfVn9.
2 Setting up a picture
Just write
2
\usepackage{tikz} in the preamble of your document. Modern
T
E
X engines
3
such as MikTeX will automatically install the package. Then
when you want to do a picture just write
\begin{tikzpicture}
code
\end{tikzpicture}
If you want to do a gure (you know the kind of thing that oats to the top
of the page) you need to set it up as
\begin{figure}
\begin{tikzpicture}
code
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Do not forget!
Make it explicit enough that readers
can figure out what you are doing.}
\end{figure}
You then compile your document using pdfT
E
X or XeT
E
X.
1
There is another popular package for doing gures in L
A
T
E
X, PSTricks, whose original
version is due to the economist Tim van Zandt. The two packages are pretty much equivalent
in terms of ease of use and features. TikZ has the advantage of better compatibility with
pdfT
E
X; PSTricks has the advantage of some nice commands for drawing curves. You can
nd an introduction to PSTricks in the book The L
A
T
E
X Graphics Companion.
2
This assumes that you are using L
A
T
E
X. TikZ can also be used in raw T
E
X, but if you
are hardcore enough to do that, you probably are better o going straight to the manual.
3
I do not know how to set up TikZ for use with Scientic Word (which you should not be
using in any case). If you know how to do it, please tell me so that I can put the instructions in
the next version of this document. (I assume that if you can do it is still pretty uncomfortable,
as the code for the pictures will be in the infamous gray boxes.)
3
There is a very extensive (over 700 pages!) manual. You can nd it at
http://bit.ly/e3eQQd.
4,5,6
3 Drawing lines and curves
3.1 Simple straight lines
To draw a line you do something like
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) --(1,2);
\end{tikzpicture}
and you get
TikZ automatically draws a line between the points (0,0) and (1,2) and sets
up the right space for the gure (by default, coordinates are in centimeters).
You can do a sequence of segments which goes from point to point:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) --(1,2) -- (2,3) -- (1,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
(I have added the grid lines on the graphic to make it clearer. This is done
through the command \draw[help lines] (0,0) grid (2,3);, which draws a
grid from (0,0) to (2,3). The help lines option makes the presentation neater
4
You can also nd it on your computer once TikZ is installed. Go to the command line
window and type texdoc pgf and choose pgfmanual.pdf in the list which is oered. Or, if
you are using the WinEdt editor, you you can go to L
A
T
E
X help and ask it for the help of the
pgf package. (See the manual about the reasons for the two names TikZ and pgf.)
5
In French, there also exists an introduction to TikZ which is shorter (but still 189 pages
long) and may be more accessible than the manual. It is called TikZ pour limpatient, was
written by Gerard Tisseau and Jacques Duma, and can be found at http://math.et.info.
free.fr/TikZ/bdd/TikZ-Impatient.pdf.
6
There are a number of wysiwyg or semi-wysiwyg tools which can help you do graphics.
For instance, while still in beta state TikZEdt seems useful (http://code.google.com/p/
tikzedt/).
4
I discuss this below. I will add grid lines as useful in what follows without
putting the corresponding line in the code.)
Of course, you can put several lines on the same graph:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) --(1,2) -- (2,3) -- (1,0);
\draw (3,0) -- (1.5,0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
yields
Notice the semi-colons ; at the end of lines it is these semi-colons which
mark the end of instructions. You will see below examples where one instruction
is spread over several lines. We could also put several instructions on one line:
in the last picture I could have written
\draw (0,0) --(1,2) -- (2,3) -- (1,0); \draw (3,0) -- (1.5,0.5);
without changing the output. You can also add and suppress spaces, for instance
in order to make the code easier to read, without changing anything in the
output.
3.2 Scaling pictures
One very useful feature of TikZ is that you can blow up the picture, by adding
an option scale to the environment.
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=3]
\draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
which you can compare to the following:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
5
which yields
You can scale only one dimension:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=3]
\draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
or both dimensions in dierent proportions:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=2.5,yscale=0.5]
\draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
3.3 Arrows and the like
You can decorate the lines. For instance we can put arrows or bars on one of
both extremities:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [->] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw [<-] (0, -0.5) -- (2,-0.5);
\draw [|->] (0,-1) -- (2,-1);
\end{tikzpicture}
which yields
When you draw several segments, the arrows are placed at the extremities of
the rst and the last segments. This is convenient, among other things to draw
axes (we will see later how to label them):
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [<->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (3,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
which gives you
6
3.4 Changing the thickness of lines
Other decorations include changing the thickness:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [ultra thick] (0,1) -- (2,1);
\draw [thick] (0,0.5) -- (2,0.5);
\draw [thin] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
to obtain
You can use: ultra thin , very thin , thin , semithick , thick ,
very thick and ultra thick
There is also the help lines option, discussed above, which is made specially
to be ne gray lines for showing special points:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [<->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (4,0);
\draw [thick] (0,1.5) -- (3,0);
\draw [ultra thick] (0,0) -- (2,2);
\draw [help lines] (1,0) -- (1,1) -- (0,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
which yields
You can also use custom widths:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [line width=12] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw [line width=0.2cm] (4,.75) -- (5,.25);
\end{tikzpicture}
which gives a line 12pt wide ( the default dimension for width is point) and
another one .2cm wide:
7
3.5 Dashes and dots
You can also make dotted and dashed lines
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [dashed, ultra thick] (0,1) -- (2,1);
\draw [dashed] (0, 0.5) -- (2,0.5);
\draw [dotted] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
This gives:
The top line shows you that you can mix types of decorations. You have lots of
control over the style of your dotted and dashed lines (see the manual).
3.6 Colors
And nally, you can color your lines.
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [gray] (0,1) -- (2,1);
\draw [red] (0, 0.5) -- (2,0.5);
\draw [blue] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
This gives
You have direct access to the following colors: red , green , blue , cyan
, magenta , yellow , black , gray , darkgray , lightgray ,
brown , lime , olive , orange , pink , purple , teal , violet
and white . And you can dene all the colors you might want see the
manual.
3.7 Pictures in the middle of the text
By the way, you may wonder how I included these rectangles in the text. TikZ
makes a picture wherever you want; I just typed
wherever \begin{tikzpicture} \draw [yellow, line width=6]
(0,0) -- (.5,0); \end{tikzpicture} you want
(To make these constructions easier to type you can use the command \tikz
see the manual.)
3.8 Curves
You are not limited to straight lines:
8
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [blue] (0,0) rectangle (1.5,1);
\draw [red, ultra thick] (3,0.5) circle [radius=0.5];;
\draw [gray] (6,0) arc [radius=1, start angle=45, end angle= 120];
\end{tikzpicture}
This gives:
(The arc is of radius 1, starts at the point (6,0) leaving it at an angle of 45
degrees and stops when its slope is 120 degrees this is not the most convenient
notation!)
You can make paths take smoother turns:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [<->, rounded corners, thick, purple] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (3,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
which gives you
If you want a precise curve you can do it by computing lots of points in a
program such as Mathematica
c
and then putting them into TikZ:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=25,yscale=5]
\draw [<->, help lines] (0.6,1.34) -- (0.6,1) -- (1.05,1);
\draw[orange] (0.6, 1.0385) --
(0.61, 1.06372) -- (0.62, 1.08756) -- (0.63, 1.11012) -- (0.64,
1.13147) -- (0.65, 1.15166) -- (0.66, 1.17074) -- (0.67, 1.18874) -- (0.68,
1.20568) -- (0.69, 1.22157) -- (0.7, 1.23643) -- (0.71, 1.25026) -- (0.72,
1.26307) -- (0.73, 1.27486) -- (0.74, 1.28561) -- (0.75, 1.29534) -- (0.76,
1.30402) -- (0.77, 1.31165) -- (0.78, 1.31821) -- (0.79, 1.32369) -- (0.8,
1.32806) -- (0.81, 1.33131) -- (0.82, 1.3334) -- (0.83, 1.33431) -- (0.84,
1.334) -- (0.85, 1.33244) -- (0.86, 1.32956) -- (0.87, 1.32533) -- (0.88,
1.31966) -- (0.89, 1.3125) -- (0.9, 1.30373) -- (0.91, 1.29325) -- (0.92,
1.2809) -- (0.93, 1.26649) -- (0.94, 1.24976) -- (0.95, 1.23032) -- (0.96,
1.2076) -- (0.97, 1.18065) -- (0.98, 1.14763) -- (0.99, 1.1038) -- (0.991,
1.09836) -- (0.992, 1.09261) -- (0.993, 1.0865) -- (0.994, 1.07994) -- (0.995,
1.07282) -- (0.996, 1.06497) -- (0.997, 1.0561) -- (0.998, 1.04563) -- (0.999,
1.03209) -- (0.9991, 1.03042) -- (0.9992, 1.02866) -- (0.9993,
1.02679) -- (0.9994, 1.02478) -- (0.9995, 1.0226) -- (0.9996, 1.02019) -- (0.9997,
1.01747) -- (0.9998, 1.01424) -- (0.9999, 1.01005) -- (0.9999,
1.01005) -- (0.99991, 1.00953) -- (0.99992, 1.00898) -- (0.99993,
1.0084) -- (0.99994, 1.00778) -- (0.99995, 1.0071) -- (0.99996,
1.00634) -- (0.99997, 1.00549) -- (0.99998, 1.00448) -- (0.99999, 1.00317) -- (1,
1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
9
which gives you
Two remarks:
This was overkill: I do not need so many points;
This can also serve as a reminder that one TikZ instruction can be spread
over several lines and cut arbitrarily over several lines. The marker is the
semi-colon, not the end of line!
There are a number of ways by which you can do curves without plotting all
the points. Here is an easy one:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[very thick] (0,0) to [out=90,in=195] (2,1.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
This gives us a curve from (0,0) to (2,1.5) which leaves at an angle of 90

and
arrive at an angle of 195

:
Note that I had to replace the by to. Notice how the angles work:
When the curves goes out of (0,0), you put a needle with one extremity
on the starting point and the other one facing right and you turn it coun-
terclockwise until it is tangent to the curve. The angle by which you have
to turn the needle gives you the out angle.
When the curves goes in at (2,1.5), you put a needle with one extremity
on the arrival point and the other one facing right and you turn it coun-
terclockwise until it is tangent to the curve. The angle by which you have
to turn the needle gives you the in angle.
As with straight lines you can put several to instructions in the same TikZ
instruction:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [<->,thick, cyan] (0,0) to [out=90,in=180] (1,1)
to [out=0,in=180] (2.5,0) to [out=0,in=-135] (4,1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
which gives you
10
Note that we can put arrows on curves also. They are put at the extremities of
the rst and last segments. If you want an arrow on each segment, you have to
build the curve from individual components.
3.9 Plotting functions
TikZ also has a math engine which enables you to plot functions:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=13,yscale=3.8]
\draw [<->] (0,0.8) -- (0,0) -- (0.5,0);
\draw[green, ultra thick, domain=0:0.5] plot (\x, {0.025+\x+\x*\x});
\end{tikzpicture}
gives you
The domain instruction shows the range of x which is plotted. In this case we
are plotting the function 0.025 + x + x
2
. Note the braces around the function
that we plot in plot (\x, {function}).
Many mathematical functions are possible; you will probably have enough
with factorial(\x), sqrt(\x), pow(\x,y) (which gives x
y
), exp(\x), ln(\x),
log10(\x), log2(\x), abs(\x) (the absolute value of x), mod(\x,y) (x modulo
y), round(\x) (rounds x to the nearest integer), floor(\x) (the largest integer
smaller than x), ceil(\x) (the smallest integer larger than x), sin(\x) (sin(x),
it assumes that x is in degrees; if x is expressed in radians use sin(\x r)),
cos(\x) (cos(x), it assumes that x is in degrees; if x is expressed in radians use
cos(\x r)), tan(\x) (tan(x), it assumes that x is in degrees; if x is expressed
in radians use tan(\x r)), min(\x,y,), max(\x,y). You can even use rnd
(without argument) which yields a random number between 0 and 1.
In mathematical expressions the two following variables can be useful: e,
which is equal to 2.718281828, and pi, which is equal to 3:141592654.
You can mix functions to compute more complicated expressions (see above
for the reason for the r parameter in the argument of sin and cos and note the
use of pi to dene the domains):
\begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=1.5]
\draw [help lines, <->] (0,0) -- (6.5,0);
\draw [help lines, ->] (0,-1.1) -- (0,1.1);
\draw [green,domain=0:2*pi] plot (\x, {(sin(\x r)* ln(\x+1))/2});
\draw [red,domain=0:pi] plot (\x, {sin(\x r)});
\draw [blue, domain=pi:2*pi] plot (\x, {cos(\x r)*exp(\x/exp(2*pi))});
\end{tikzpicture}
which gives you
11
4 Filling up areas
4.1 Filling up simple areas
You can also ll paths when they are closed:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [fill=red,ultra thick] (0,0) rectangle (1,1);
\draw [fill=red,ultra thick,red] (2,0) rectangle (3,1);
\draw [blue, fill=blue] (4,0) -- (5,1) -- (4.75,0.15) -- (4,0);
\draw [fill] (7,0.5) circle [radius=0.1];
\draw [fill=orange] (9,0) rectangle (11,1);
\draw [fill=white] (9.25,0.25) rectangle (10,1.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
Notice the dierence between the rst two squares. The second red in [fill=red,ultra thick,red]
tells TikZ to draw the line around the shape in red. We have indicated no color
in the rst, so the line is black.
If you do not want to see the outline at all, replace the \draw command by
\path:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\path [fill=gray] (0,0) rectangle (1.5,1);
\draw [fill=yellow] (2,0) rectangle (3.5,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
gives you
Of course, we could have replaced the rst line by \draw [fill=yellow,yellow] (0,0) rectangle (1.5,1);:
we would have obtained a square like the second one, except for the fact that it
is surrounded by a yellow line.
12
4.2 Filling up arbitrary areas
The content in this subsection are not necessary to understand the rest of the
document. You can skip it at rst reading. (But example 8.5 uses these tech-
niques.)
You can draw paths which mix the -- and the to constructions above. This
is useful for lling up strange looking areas.
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [ultra thick] (0,0) to [out=87,in=150] (1,1) -- (.85,.15) -- (0,0);
\draw [ultra thick, fill=purple] (2,0) to [out=87,in=150] (3,1) -- (2.85,.15) -- (2,0);
\path [fill=purple] (4,0) to [out=87,in=150] (5,1) -- (4.85,.15) -- (4,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
Actually if you put the to constructions without any options you get a
straight line:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [ultra thick] (0,0) to (1,1) to (.85,.15) to (0,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
gives you
5 Putting labels in pictures
When you do a picture, in 99% of cases you also need to put labels. This is
easy. Let us start by seeing how we would place some text in a picture.
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [thick, <->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
\node at (1,1) {yes};
\end{tikzpicture}
yields
yes
Notice how the yes is positioned: the center of its baseline is at (1,1).
Sometimes you want a label to be situated relative to a point. TikZ has neat
commands for this. For instance you can write
13
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [thick, <->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw[fill] (1,1) circle [radius=0.025];
\node [below] at (1,1) {below};
\end{tikzpicture}
to get
below
You are not limited to put things below a point:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [thick, <->] (0,2) -- (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw[fill] (1,1) circle [radius=0.025];
\node [below] at (1,1) {below};
\node [above] at (1,1) {above};
\node [left] at (1,1) {left};
\node [right] at (1,1) {right};
\end{tikzpicture}
yields
below
above
left right
And, you can also mix and match
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=2]
\draw [thick, <->] (0,1) -- (0,0) -- (1,0);
\draw[fill] (1,1) circle [radius=0.025];
\node [below right, red] at (.5,.75) {below right};
\node [above left, green] at (.5,.75) {above left};
\node [below left, purple] at (.5,.75) {below left};
\node [above right, magenta] at (.5,.75) {above right};
\end{tikzpicture}
yields
below right
above left
below left
above right
This makes it possible to label axes and points:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=3, yscale=1.5]
\draw [thick, <->] (0,1) -- (0,0) -- (1,0);
\node [below right] at (1,0) {$x$};
14
\node [left] at (0,1) {$y$};
\draw[fill] (.4,.6) circle [radius=.5pt];
\node[above right] (.4,.6) {$A$};
\end{tikzpicture}
gives you
x
y
A
You can avoid some typing by mixing nodes in the middle of paths. For
instance the last gure could have been written as follows:
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=3, yscale]
\draw [thick, <->] (0,1) node [left] {$y$}
-- (0,0) -- (1,0) node [below right] {$x$};
\draw[fill] (.4,.6) circle [radius=.5pt]
node[above right] (.4,.6) {$A$};
\end{tikzpicture}
which would have given exactly the same result. Note that the node is put after
the point to which it is attached and that we suppress the \ in \node.
Sometimes, you may want to put several lines in your node (this is con-
venient when drawing time lines for instance). This can be done by using the
standard L
A
T
E
X \\ for indicating a new line but you must tell TikZ how to align
things. Type
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=1.3]
\draw [thick] (0,0) -- (9,0);
\draw (0,-.2) -- (0, .2);
\draw (3,-.2) -- (3, .2);
\draw (6,-.2) -- (6, .2);
\draw (9,-.2) -- (9, .2);
\node[align=left, below] at (1.5,-.5)%
{This happens\\in period 1\\and is aligned\\ left};
\node[align=center, below] at (4.5,-.5)%
{This happens\\in period 2\\and is centered};
\node[align=right, below] at (7.5,-.5)%
{This happens\\in period 2\\and is right\\aligned};
\end{tikzpicture}
to obtain
This happens
in period 1
and is aligned
left
This happens
in period 2
and is centered
This happens
in period 2
and is right
aligned
Without the option align= TikZ will make one big line. If I made the mistake
to write
15
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [->] (0,0) -- (2,0);
\node [right] at (2,0) {above\\below};
\end{tikzpicture}
I would have obtained
abovebelow
The TikZ manual will give you information about the way in which you can
control more precisely the position and shapes of the labels, and also on the
way in which you can put labels on lines and curves as in
label
.
6 Integration with Beamer
TikZ works very well with Beamer (they were written by the same person!). In
particular it is very easy to uncover gures progressively. For instance
\begin{frame}
a few lines
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [blue, ultra thick] (-1,2) -- (6,3);
\uncover<1>{\draw [green,thick] (-4,3) -- (2,2.5);}
\uncover<2>{\draw [red,thick] (0,0) -- (0,5);}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
and something under.
\end{frame}
gives you two slides:
a few lines
and something under.
a few lines
and something under.
It is important to use \uncover and \cover (or, nearly equivalently, \visible
and \invisible) rather than \only. If I replace \uncover by \only in the
code above I get
16
a few lines
and something under.
a few lines
and something under.
Notice how the text changes position. With \uncover the lines are drawn on
all the slides but made invisible when not called for. With \only the lines are
only drawn when called for.
7 Hints and tricks
It takes some time to draw gures. And it is normal to make mistakes.
Proceed by trial and error, compiling your code often.
If you have problems placing things, it is useful to draw a grid; you can
comment it out when compiling the nal version. Put the grid as the rst
instruction in the picture, so that it does not overwrite the interesting
part! (There are lots of possible options for the grid: see the manual.)
8 Examples
A few examples.
8.1 Hotelling
8.1.1 The whole picture
0
a = b = 1/2
1
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=8]
\draw[-][draw=red, very thick] (0,0) -- (.5,0);
\draw[-][draw=green, very thick] (.5,0) -- (1,0);
\draw [thick] (0,-.1) node[below]{0} -- (0,0.1);
\draw [thick] (0.5,-.1) node[below]{$a=b=1/2$} -- (0.5,0.1);
\draw [thick] (1,-.1) node[below]{1} -- (1,0.1);
\end{tikzpicture}
17
8.1.2 Step by step
\draw[-][draw=red, very thick] (0,0) -- (.5,0);
\draw[-][draw=green, very thick] (.5,0) -- (1,0);
\draw [thick] (0,-.1) node[below]{0} -- (0,0.1);
0
\draw [thick] (0.5,-.1) node[below]{$a=b=1/2$} -- (0.5,0.1);
0 a = b = 1/2
\draw [thick] (1,-.1) node[below]{1} -- (1,0.1);
0 a = b = 1/2 1
8.2 Vertical dierentiation
8.2.1 The whole picture
q
1
vendue
au prix p
1
depend de p
1
et p
2
q
2
vendue
au prix p
2
\begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=4]
\draw[-][draw=red, very thick] (0,0) -- (0,.45);
\draw[-][draw=green, very thick] (0,.45) -- (0,1);
\draw [thick] (-0.1,0.2) -- (0.1,.2) node[align=left, right]
{$q_1$ vendue\\au prix $p_1$};
\node[right] at (0.1,.45) {d\epend de $p_1$ et $p_2$};
\draw [thick] ((-0.1,0.85) -- (0.1,.85) node[align=left, right]
{$q_2$ vendue\\ au prix $p_2$};
\draw (-0.1,0) -- (0.1,0);
\draw (-0.1,1) -- (0.1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
The gure looks better with the labels q
i
vendue au prix p
i
on one line,
but I wanted to remind you of the possibility of writing the text in a node over
several lines! Note that in [align=left, right] the align=left tells TikZ to
align the text to the left whereas the right option tells it to put the node to
the right of the coordinate.
8.2.2 Step by step
\begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=4]
1. \draw[-][draw=red, very thick] (0,0) -- (0,.45);
2. \draw[-][draw=green, very thick] (0,.45) -- (0,1);
3.a. \draw [thick] (-0.1,0.2) -- (0.1,.2);
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3. \draw [thick] (-0.1,0.2) -- (0.1,.2) node[align=left, right]
{$q_1$ vendue\\au prix $p_1$};
4. \node[right] at (0.1,.45) {d\epend de $p_1$ et $p_2$};
4. \draw [thick] ((-0.1,0.85) -- (0.1,.85) node[align=left, right]
{$q_2$ vendue\\ au prix $p_2$};
5. \draw (-0.1,0) -- (0.1,0);
5. \draw (-0.1,1) -- (0.1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}
1 2 3.a
q
1
vendue
au prix p
1
3
q
1
vendue
au prix p
1
depend de p
1
et p
2
q
2
vendue
au prix p
2
4
q
1
vendue
au prix p
1
depend de p
1
et p
2
q
2
vendue
au prix p
2
5
8.3 A curve
8.3.1 The whole picture
q
V (q)
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[<->] (6,0) node[below]{$q$} -- (0,0) --
(0,6) node[left]{$V(q)$};
\draw[very thick] (0,0) to [out=90,in=145] (5,4.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
19
8.3.2 Step by step
\begin{tikzpicture}
1.a. \draw[<->] (6,0) -- (0,0) --
(0,6);
1. \draw[<->] (6,0) node[below]{$q$} -- (0,0) --
(0,6) node[left]{$V(q)$};
2. \draw[very thick] (0,0) to [out=90,in=145] (5,4.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
1.a
q
V (q)
1
q
V (q)
3
8.4 Tangency
8.4.1 The whole picture
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [help lines] (0,0) grid (5,5);
\draw [<->] (5,0) -- (0,0) -- (0,5);
\draw (4,0) -- (0,4);
\draw[dashed,ultra thick]
(1.5,3.5) to [out=-80,in=135] (2.5,1.5);
\draw [dashed,ultra thick]
(2.5,1.5) to [out=-45,in=160] (4.2,0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
20
You have recognized a consumer! Note the use of in and to to get the
tangents. We could have made this a bit more compact by writing the dashed
line in one instruction:
\draw[dashed,ultra thick]
(1.5,3.5) to[out=-80,in=135] (2.5,1.5)
to [out=-45,in=160] (4.2,0.5);
Notice also that the curves goes in (2.5,1.5) at an angle of 135

and goes out

at an angle of 45

. This is consistent with the behavior explained on page 10.

8.4.2 Step by step
\begin{tikzpicture}
1. \draw [help lines] (0,0) grid (5,5);
1. \draw [<->] (5,0) -- (0,0) -- (0,5);
1. \draw (4,0) -- (0,4);
2. \draw[dashed,ultra thick]
(1.5,3.5) to [out=-80,in=135] (2.5,1.5);
3. \draw [dashed,ultra thick]
(2.5,1.5) to [out=-45,in=160] (4.2,0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
1 2 3
21
8.5 Consumer surplus
8.5.1 The whole picture
P
(0,0) Q
P

= .8
Q

= 3
\begin{tikzpicture}
\path [fill=yellow] (0,0) -- (0,5) to [out=-80, in=160]
(3,.8) -- (3,0) -- (0,0);
\draw [<->] (0,6) node [left] {$P$} -- (0,0)
node [below left] {(0,0)} -- (7,0) node [below] {$Q$};
\draw [ultra thick, dashed] (0,.8) node [left] {$P^*=.8$} -- (3,.8)
-- (3,0) node [below] {$Q^*=3$};
\draw [fill] (3,.8) circle [radius=.1];
\draw [thick] (0,5) to [out=-80, in=160] (3,.8) to
[out=-20, in=175] (6,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
Note that I color the lled area before drawing the lines, to make sure that
those come on top and are visible. (There is, of course, no serious reason for
the P

and the Q

to be equal to the real coordinates of the circled point in

the picture, except to help you understand what is happening.)
8.5.2 Step by step
\begin{tikzpicture}
1. \path [fill=yellow] (0,0) -- (0,5) to [out=-80, in=160]
(3,.8) -- (3,0) -- (0,0);
2. \draw [<->] (0,6) node [left] {$P$} -- (0,0)
node [below left] {(0,0)} -- (7,0) node [below] {$Q$};
2. \draw [ultra thick, dashed] (0,.8) node [left] {$P^*=.8$} -- (3,.8)
-- (3,0) node [below] {$Q^*=3$};
2. \draw [fill] (3,.8) circle [radius=.1];
3. \draw [thick] (0,5) to [out=-80, in=160] (3,.8) to
22
[out=-20, in=175] (6,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
1
P
(0,0) Q
P

= .8
Q

= 3
2
P
(0,0) Q
P

= .8
Q

= 3
3
8.6 Plotting lots of curves
EUR
q
v
1
(x)
v
2
(x)
2 min[v
1
, v
2
]
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}[domain=0:0.5,xscale=13,yscale=3.8]
\draw[<->] (0,2) node[left]{EUR}-- (0,0) -- (.7,0) node[below] {$q$};
\draw[red] plot (\x, {0.25+\x/2+\x*\x/2}) node[right] {$v_1(x)$};
\draw[green] plot (\x, {0.025+\x+\x*\x}) node[right] {$v_2(x)$};
\draw[thin, dashed] plot (\x, {0.275+1.5*\x+1.5*\x*\x}) ;
\draw[thick,domain=0:0.33666] plot (\x, {0.05+2*\x+2*\x*\x}) ;
\draw[thick,domain=0.33666:0.5]
plot (\x, {0.5+\x+\x*\x}) node[right] {$2\min[v_1,v_2]$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
You should be able to gure it out. Note that I can also attach nodes to the
plots of mathematical functions.
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9 Conclusion
TikZ is a very large program which can do lots of things. You will nd commands
to draw hierarchial trees, to draw lots of dierent types of shapes, to do some
elementary programming, to align elements of a picture in a matrix frame, to
decorate nodes, to compute the intersections of paths, etc. The main message
is if it is not in these notes, it is most probably somewhere in the manual.
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