latex-includetikz

Latex package to include external tikz figures and similarly to \includegraphics command.

Install

Add includetikz in your current directory, or texmf install. Then add

\usepackage[<options>]{includetikz}

in your text source.

Package options:

Option	Description
[external]	Compute all include tikz as external pdf files with checksum (see tikz external library).
[origin]	Compute all pdf picture in a subdirectory "autogen" under the original figure directory (Default will use the source directory ).
[force]	Force all tikz figures to be recompiled (Slower build).
[disable]	Disable all pictures and replace by a black picture (Faster build).
[optimize]	Optimize generated pdf.

Usage

Create you tikz figures in a separate file then include them in your tex source using

\includetikz[<options>]{path/to/image.tikz}

Tikz PDFs are generated by default under a new directory called "autogen" in the source directory. You can change the default path using the option "origin" to create this directory relative to each figure directory.

NB: .tikz or .tex extension work.

Options

Option	valuetype	Description
[scale]	float	Scale the tikz image
[font keepratio]	X	Scale the image and inverse scale font size
[font scale]	float	Scale tikz image font
[font style]	string	Tikz image font style (beta)
[fill opacity]	float	Modify image opacity (beta)

Commands:

Command	Description
\includetikzdisable	Disable all pictures (to make compilation faster)
\includetikzorigin	Change autogen path to figure origin directory
\includetikzforcerebuild	Force tikz picture to be recompiled

Examples:

Minimal example:

% Preamble.
\usepackage{includetizk}

% Document.
\includetikz[scale=0.9]{figs/monimage.tikz}

Generate monimage.tikz during first compilation, then use auto-generated pdf:

% Preamble.
\usepackage[external]{includetizk}

% Document.
\includetikz[font scale=1.3]{figs/monimage.tikz}

FAQS

1. I get an MD5 write error I can't write on file figs/.md5'
2. I want to replace tikz picture by pdf

---

I get an MD5 write error I can't write on file figs/.md5'.

This often happens when you output files in another directory using the latex option -output-directory=<workdir>. The easier solution is to create a simlink inside the working directory. See the providen example.

---

I want to replace tikz picture by pdf

This is one of the goal of this package. Compile your latex file the first time to generate all tikz pictures. Then comment the includetikz lines and replace them by the \includegraphics function:

%\usepackage{includetikz}
\usepackage{graphicx}

%\includetikz[scale=0.5]{path/to/fig/figname-1}
\includegraphics{autogen/figname-1-n0} 

%\includetikz[scale=0.5]{path/to/fig/figname-1}
\includegraphics{autogen/figname-1-n1}

%\includetikz[scale=0.5]{path/to/fig/figname-2}
\includegraphics{autogen/figname-2-n0} 

Note that all generated picture are suffixed by -nX where X represent the nth call of the same figure. (This is necessary for the case where the same picture is generated with different options) If the origin option is passed then the path would be path/to/fig/autogen/ instead of autogen/.