Creating complex drawings with TikZ in LaTeX

ShayanJ · Feb 7, 2015

Since LaTeX is very powerful, I'm curious whether its possible to do things like the below samples in it. Is it?

Matrix multiplication diagram: a 3x3 matrix times a 3x3 matrix equals a 3x3 matrix c, with circled entries a11, a12, a13, b12, b22, b32 and c12, and arrows linking them to the expression a11b12 + a12b22 + a13b32 = c12.

Diagram of the rule of Sarrus for a 3x3 determinant: matrix with rows a1 a2 a3, b1 b2 b3, c1 c2 c3 with the first two columns repeated, dashed diagonals drawn across, and signs minus minus minus below and plus plus plus below.

Thanks

soarce · Feb 8, 2015

LaTeX has some basic drawing instrucion set, see for instance http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Picture , but I wouldn't recommended it. One has to keep track of all coordinates (points, line, arrows).
Usually I use some vector graphic software which allows LaTeX expressions in its text box because you have a better and much easier control of the picture, I recommend Xfig or Inkscape. I don't know whether CorelDraw has some LaTeX plugin.

statdad · Feb 24, 2015

The Tikz package could do this.

Creating complex drawings with TikZ in LaTeX

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