21
$\begingroup$

I googled and found how to do it in LaTeX software on your computer, but what about this website, possible to draw graphs as easy as writing out a matrix in LaTeX?

Failing that is there some website that will generate an image for you given the graph spec.

Thanks.

$\endgroup$
9
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ No, I do not think so. Instead, you need to draw your graphs in LaTeX, save the picture (using a screenshot, say) and then upload that to here. $\endgroup$
    – user1729
    Sep 23, 2013 at 20:25
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Related: What software is used to draw undirected graphs? and Graph theory software? $\endgroup$ Sep 23, 2013 at 20:32
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ (And for the record, use TikZ if you want to draw anything in $\LaTeX$. And I mean anything. Well, anything mathematical.) $\endgroup$
    – user1729
    Sep 23, 2013 at 20:34
  • 13
    $\begingroup$ If I thought there was even a remote chance that it would be satisfied, my number one feature-request would be tikz support for MSE. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Sep 23, 2013 at 21:35
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @Alexander. I'd second that, since I use tikz for all the pictures I've posted (and lots of handouts for my classes), but you'd probably agree that tikz has a frightfully steep learning curve for novices. $\endgroup$ Sep 26, 2013 at 14:30
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Also this post on meta discusses creating and posting various kinds of diagrams on this site: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/9632/creating-diagrams (And you can find links to more such posts there.) $\endgroup$ Nov 30, 2014 at 6:49
  • $\begingroup$ math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/31963/26327 $\endgroup$ Jun 20, 2020 at 7:10
  • $\begingroup$ There is now: q.uiver.app $\endgroup$ Feb 8, 2021 at 3:03
  • $\begingroup$ Wow, I didn't even know I made this post :) $\endgroup$ Feb 6, 2023 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

7
$\begingroup$

Well, there are many ways to create a picture, and upload it here. Some of the more obvious alternatives are:

(1) MS Paint, GIMP, or other paint programs

(2) Illustrator, Corel, Powerpoint, Inkscape, or other vector drawing packages

(3) TikZ or MetaPost or Asymptote, if you think that writing code is a good way to create pictures.

(4) Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, or any other package with graphing capabilities

(5) Draw on paper, and scan

(6) Draw on a whiteboard (or even a blackboard), and shoot with a camera or mobile phone.

Options 5 and 6 give you a bitmap image directly. The other options will require you to generate one indirectly. A screen grab is usually the easiest way.

For graphs, I would recommend #2 or #5, personally.

$\endgroup$
5
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Please, don't use a point-and shoot camera or phone camera unless you're photographing something three-dimensional. $\endgroup$
    – dfeuer
    Oct 24, 2013 at 2:43
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @defeuer -- why is that? $\endgroup$
    – bubba
    Mar 14, 2014 at 4:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Because it produces images that tend to be even harder to read than proper scans of the same hand-scribbled notes. $\endgroup$
    – dfeuer
    Mar 14, 2014 at 19:16
  • $\begingroup$ I personally like the draw on paper and scan the most and this will become more and more accessible until that's all we use. $\endgroup$ Dec 1, 2014 at 16:20
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ You forgot to mention PSTricks. $\endgroup$ Aug 27, 2019 at 9:05
14
$\begingroup$

If you know Mathematica syntax you can use Wolfram Alpha for simple graphs. Then post the image here:

graphs

$\endgroup$
5
$\begingroup$

Graphviz can draw graphs, and google charts API can do graphviz. See erdos for a tool that lets you use the API interactively.

Alternatively, you can use tikz, and a site like writelatex.com to render it.

When using either of these, I use imgur.com's browser plugin to rehost the image, and I use gist to save the source; I make sure to link the sources from my diagrams in my questions and answers.

Typically, I use <sup><\sup> to "caption" the images from underneath.

Another trick: when displaying multiple images, you can resize them to fit on the same row side-by-side; IIRC the width of the display is ~660 pixels (on at least on cs.SE; I hope it doesn't change!) - image hosting sites like imgur.com directly support simple image editing, like scaling and cropping - then I caption them underneath like "left: description, right: description".

Example:

Image of graph Image of shortest path Image of non intersecting shortest path

Left: Full graph. Center: shortest path. Right: shortest non-intersecting path.

$\endgroup$
7
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Oh, please don't rely on a certain number of pixels in the display! $\endgroup$
    – dfeuer
    Oct 24, 2013 at 2:40
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ You can put images side-by-side in $\LaTeX$ using \minipage $\endgroup$
    – user1729
    Oct 26, 2013 at 13:41
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @dfeuer you can combine the images if need be lol. Or like user1729 suggested, you can combine them in LaTeX. $\endgroup$
    – Realz Slaw
    Oct 28, 2013 at 18:05
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @RealzSlaw: "This image you are requesting does not exist or no longer available". $\endgroup$
    – hrkrshnn
    Aug 30, 2014 at 9:27
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Moron true, but it doesn't really matter what the image is, the point is the captions. If it bothers you, you can edit in any image . $\endgroup$
    – Realz Slaw
    Aug 31, 2014 at 0:44
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ the images no longer exist, can you lease edit that$ $\endgroup$
    – user153330
    Sep 18, 2015 at 21:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @user153330 done $\endgroup$
    – Realz Slaw
    Sep 18, 2015 at 21:32

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .