LaTeX Drawings

Pictures, Images & Diagrams in LaTeX Documents

LaTeX has several mechanisms for incorporating graphical plots, line drawings and images into a document.

Pictures & Images

To incorporate graphics files in LaTeX, you must have the graphicx package (which comes with MiKTeX). Inclusion of graphics in LaTeX is quite easy: simply add to the preamble at the start of your LaTeX file the following:
\usepackage{graphicx}
Then wherever you wish to include a graphics file (say, 3dplot.pdf) in your LaTeX document, you simply use:
\includegraphics[width=100mm]{3dplot.pdf}
The width, in this case, is set to 100mm. The height is scaled accordingly to keep the correct aspect ratio. You can also use JPEG files:
\includegraphics[width=100mm]{mypic.jpg}
You must use either .jpg or .pdf formats. If you have an application that generates other file formats, then you must convert the file into pdf or jpg.
For converting many different image file formats, IrfanView is highly recommended.
If you have any Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files, you have to convert them into PDF format for pdflatex. You do this using the command-line utility epstopdf, as follows:
eps2pdf 3dplot
This will take 3dplot.eps and convert it to 3dplot.pdf.

In MATLAB, for example, you can generate a .eps file for the current figure by typing
print -deps myplot.eps
For colour pictures, use
print -depsc myplot.eps
Then use epstopdf myplot.eps to generate myplot.pdf
(Advanced) It is also possible to add LaTeX fonts to PostScript graphics. For that, you need the psfrag package, as descibed in Adding LaTeX Fonts to Graphics. You also need the Ghostview application. Where can I get Ghostview?

Diagrams

The PGF package (alternate site) provides macros for picture drawing in LaTeX, and generates PDF output directly. The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to embed LaTeX text, fonts, equations, or any LaTeX typesetting commands into the diagram.
A free drawing package for Windows is Paint.Net. You can save in formats suitable for LaTeX or web documents.
If you wish to purchase a commercial drawing package, SmartDraw is worth a look.
LaTeXPiX is an application for Windows which allows you to draw PGF format graphics. It is less tedious than manually entering object placement commands directly for PGF.

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