dot2tex - A Graphviz to LaTeX converter

Options

The following options are available:

\rput[alignstr] ...

The following options are used by the output templates.

PGF and TikZ

This is the default output format. Generates code for the Portable Graphics Format (PGF) package . Mixes both PGF and TikZ commands.

PSTricks

Generates code for the PSTricks package.

TikZ

Not implemented yet. This purpose of the TikZ output format is to use TikZ' node and edge commands, instead of relying on the xdot draw commands. This will allow tighter integration with PGF/TikZ and better visual results.

Label examples

Consider the following graph:

digraph G {
    a_1-> a_2 -> a_3 -> a_1;
}

Converting the graph using:

$ dot2tex -tmath ex1.dot > ex1.tex

gives the result shown in the left hand side of the figure below. The default rendering is shown to the right. Using the raw mode will result in a compilation error because of the underscore character.

Example of using texlbl:

digraph G {
    a_1 [texlbl="$\frac{\gamma}{x^2}$"];
    a_1-> a_2 -> a_3 -> a_1;
}

Example of using the texmode attribute:

digraph G {
    a_1 [texlbl="$\frac{\gamma}{2x^2+y^3}$"];
    a_1 -> a_2 -> a_3 -> a_1
    node [texmode="math"];
    a_1 -> b_1 -> b_2 -> a_3;
    b_1 [label="\\frac{\\gamma}{x^2}"];
    node [texmode="verbatim"]
    b_4 [label="\\beta"]
    a_3 -> b_4 -> a_1;d
}

The above example shows two important things:

• The backslash \ character needs to be written as \\ in the label attribute.
• Using LaTeX markup in the label attribute gives oversized nodes. A workaround is to use the texlbl attribute, and manually pad the label attribute to an appropriate length. A much better solution is to use the --preproc option.

Preprocessing the above graph with:

$ dot2tex --preproc ex4.dot | dot2tex > ex4.tex

gives correctly sized nodes:

Preprocessing the graph

A problem with using LaTeX for typesetting node and edge labels, is that Graphviz does not know the sizes of the resulting labels. To circumvent this problem, you can use the --preproc option. The following will then happen:

1. Node and edge labels are extracted and the corresponding LaTeX markup is saved to a temporary file.
2. The file is typeset with LaTeX and information about sizes is extracted using the preview package.
3. A new dot file is created where node and edge label sizes are set using the dot language's width and height attributes.
4. The generated graph can now be processed using Graphviz and dot2tex. Label sizes will now correspond with the output from LaTeX.

Widths and heights of nodes are handled the in same way as Graphviz does it. The width and height attributes set the minimum size of the node. If label size + margins is larger that the minimum size, the node size will grow accordingly. Default values are width=0.75in and height=0.5in.

Node margins are set using the margin attribute. This also works for edge labels. margin==value sets both the horizontal and vertical margin to value, margin=="hvalue,vvalue" sets the horizontal and vertical margins respectively.

Note that all sizes are given in inches.

If you do not want a minimum node size, you can use the '--nominsize' option. Dot2tex will then use size of label + margins as node size.

Nodes with fixedsize=True attributes are not processed.

Examples

Consider the following graph:

digraph G {
    node [shape=circle];
    a_1 [texlbl="$x^2+\frac{\sin y}{y^2+\cos \beta}+\gamma_3$"];
    a_1 -> a_2 [label=" ", texlbl="$x_1+x_3^2+z+c+v~~$"];
    a_2 -> a_1;
}

Rendered with:

$ dot2tex -tmath example.dot > example.tex

the graph will look like this:

You could improve the result by adding a longer label attribute or setting a fixed width. A better solution is to preprocess the graph like this:

$ dot2tex -tmath --preproc example.dot > exampletmp.dot
$ dot2tex exampletmp.dot > example.tex

You can also chain the commands:

$ dot2tex -tmath --preproc example.dot | dot2tex > example.tex

The resulting graph now has correctly sized nodes and edge labels:

Modifying node sizes using the widht/height and margin attributes can be a bit counterintuitive. A few examples will hopefully make it clearer:

digraph G {
    node [shape=rectangle];
    a_1 [margin="0"];
    a_2 [margin="0.7,0.4"];
    a_3 [width="2",height="1"];
    a_1-> a_2 -> a_3 -> a_1;
}

Processing the graph with:

$ dot2tex -tmath --preproc example.dot | dot2tex > example.tex

gives

Setting the margin of a_1 to 0 has no effect because of the minimum node width. Processing the graph with:

$ dot2tex -tmath --preproc --nominwidth example.dot | dot2tex > example.tex

gives a different graph, where only label widths and margins affect the node sizes:

Vertical label alignment

Dot2tex relies on the xdot format for drawing nodes and placing node labels. The fonts that Graphviz and LaTeX use are different, so using the label coordinates from Graphviz does not always give good results. Dot2tex's default behavior is to place node labels in the middle of the node. However, you can change this behavior by setting the valignmode option to dot. Labels will then be placed using the coordinates supplied by Graphviz.

Here is an example graph where it is necessary to use the valignmode option:

digraph G {
    node0 [label="{left|right}", shape=record];
    node1 [shape=rectangle, label="node 1"];
    node0 -> node1;
    rankdir=LR;
}

For record nodes dot2tex has to use Graphviz coordinates. This is shown in the following figure rendered with:

$ dot2tex valign.dot

To get the same vertical alignment for both nodes, you can use:

$ dot2tex --valignmode=dot valign.dot

Now the labels are aligned, but the labels are still placed too low. The reason for this is that both PSTricks and PGF by default centers text vertically on the current coordinate. The alignment point should in this case be set to the baseline. For PGF/TikZ you can use the --graphstyle option like this:

$ dot2tex --valignmode=dot --graphstyle="anchor=base" valign.dot

PSTricks users have to use the --alingstr option:

$ dot2tex --valignmode=dot --alignstr=B valign.dot

The result is better, but to get even better alignment you have to change the node font size. Graphviz' default font size is 14pt, which is larger than the typical 10pt or 11pt used in LaTeX documents. By changing the node font size to 10pt we can trick Graphviz to give us a better alignment:

digraph G {
    node [fontsize=10];
    node0 [label="{left|right}", shape=record];
    node1 [shape=rectangle, label="node 1"];
    node0 -> node1;
    rankdir=LR;
}

Using styles

The dot language defines the style attribute that can be used to modify the appearance of graphs, nodes, and edges. The style attribute is passed to the rendering backend, and is a powerful and flexible way of customizing the look and feel of your graphs. Using styles requires detailed knowledge of the output format.

The following example shows how interesting visual results can be achieved with the PGF/TikZ output format. The styles are PGF/TikZ specific. See the user guide for details:

graph G {
    node [shape=circle, fixedsize=True, width="0.2",
          style="ball color =green", label=""];
    edge [style="snake=zigzag, green"];
    a_1 -- c -- a_2;
    c [style="ball color=black"];
    edge [style="snake=snake, blue"];
    node [style="ball color = red", label=""];
    a_3 -- c -- a_4 --a_3;
}

The snake styles only work on straight lines. We therefore have to use the -s option. fdp is used to lay out the graph:

$ fdp -TXdot ball.dot | dot2tex -fpgf -s > balls.tex

The resulting graph is shown below.

Changing arrow types

The style attribute can be used to change arrow types. A PGF/TikZ example:

digraph G {
    graph [mindist=0.5];
    node [fixedsize=true, shape=circle, width=0.4, style="fill=green!20"];
    c -> n_1 [style="-stealth"];
    c -> n_2 [style="-to"];
    c -> n_3 [style="-latex"];
    c -> n_4 [style="-diamond"];
    c -> n_5 [style="-o"];
    c -> n_6 [style="{-]}"];
    c -> n_7 [style="-triangle 90"];
    c -> n_8 [style="-hooks"];
    c -> n_9 [style="->>"];
    c [style="fill=red!80"];
}

Rendered with:

$ circo -Txdot pgfarrows.dot | dot2tex -fpgf > pgfarrows.tex

You can also set the default arrow style by using the --graphstyle option or d2tgraphstyle attribute:

$ dot2tex -tmath --graphstyle=">=diamond" ex1.dot > ex1gstyle.tex

A PSTricks example:

digraph G {
    d2tdocpreamble="\usepackage{pstricks-add}";
    graph [mindist=0.5];
    node [texmode="math", fixedsize=true, shape=circle, width=0.4];
    c -> n_1 [style="arrows=->"];
    c -> n_2 [style="arrows=->>"];
    c -> n_3 [style="arrows=-<"];
    c -> n_4 [style="arrows=-*"];
    c -> n_5 [style="arrows=-{]}"];
    c -> n_6 [style="arrows=-o"];
    c -> n_7 [style="arrows=-H"];
    c -> n_8 [style="arrows=->];
}

Rendered with:

$ circo -Txdot pstarrows.dot | dot2tex -fpst > pstarrows.tex

The above example shows how the d2tdocpreamble attribute can be used to load additional LaTeX packages. You could also use the `--docpreamble option:

$ ... | dot2tex -fpst --docpreamble="\usepackage{pstricks-add}" ...

Templates

The output from dot2tex is a list of drawing commands. To render the graphics with LaTeX there's a need for some boiling plate code. This code can be customized using simple templates. If no template is specified with the -t option, a default template will be used.

The following template tags are available:

<<drawcommands>>

The actual list of drawing commands.

<<figcode>>

Drawing commands wrapped in a figure environment. Note that several important style options are set in the figure environment.

<<bbox>>

Bounding box. Example: (0bp,0bp)(100bp,100bp) The individual parts of the bounding box are available with the tags:

• <<bbox.x0>>
• <<bbox.y0>>
• <<bbox.x1>>
• <<bbox.y1>>

Note that the bounding box parts are given without any units.

<<textencoding>>

The text encoding used for the output file. Current values are: - utf8 - latin1

<<docpreamble>>

Document preamble. The content of this tag is set by the --docpreamble option or d2tdocpreamble graph attribute. Useful for including packages and such.

<<figpreamble>>

Figure preamble. The content of this tag is set by the --figpreamble option or d2tfigpreamble graph attribute. Useful for setting font sizes and such.

<<preproccode>>

Code generated for preprocessing labels.

Three different templates are used by dot2tex for the preprocessing mode, output mode and figure only mode respectively. The following template tags make it possible to use the same template file for all modes.

<<startoutputsection>> and <<endoutputsection>>

Code between these tags is ignored in preprocessing mode.

<<startpreprocsection>> and <<endpreprocsection>>

Code between these tags is ignored in output mode.

<<startfigonlysection>> and <<endfigonlysection>>

Code between these tags is used as a template when using the --figonly option. Ignored in preprocessing and output mode.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[x11names, rgb]{xcolor}
\usepackage[<<textencoding>>]{inputenc}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{snakes,arrows,shapes}
\usepackage{amsmath}
<<startpreprocsection>>%
\usepackage[active,auctex]{preview}
<<endpreprocsection>>%
<<gvcols>>%
<<cropcode>>%
<<docpreamble>>%

\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
%
<<startpreprocsection>>%
<<preproccode>>
<<endpreprocsection>>%
%
<<startoutputsection>>
\enlargethispage{100cm}
% Start of code
% \begin{tikzpicture}[anchor=mid,>=latex',join=bevel,<<graphstyle>>]
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=latex',join=bevel,<<graphstyle>>]
\pgfsetlinewidth{1bp}
<<figpreamble>>%
<<drawcommands>>
<<figpostamble>>%
\end{tikzpicture}
% End of code
<<endoutputsection>>
%
\end{document}
%
<<startfigonlysection>>
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=latex,join=bevel,<<graphstyle>>]
\pgfsetlinewidth{1bp}
<<figpreamble>>%
<<drawcommands>>
<<figpostamble>>%
\end{tikzpicture}
<<endfigonlysection>>

\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}
\setlength\PreviewBorder{<<margin>>}

\documentclass{article}
% <<bbox>>
\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}
\usepackage[<<textencoding>>]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{amsmath}
<<startpreprocsection>>%
\usepackage[active,auctex]{preview}
<<endpreprocsection>>%
<<gvcols>>%
<<docpreamble>>%


\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
<<startpreprocsection>>%
<<preproccode>>%
<<endpreprocsection>>%
<<startoutputsection>>%
\enlargethispage{100cm}

% Start of code
\begin{pspicture}[linewidth=1bp<<graphstyle>>]<<bbox>>
\pstVerb{2 setlinejoin} % set line join style to 'mitre'
<<figpreamble>>%
<<drawcommands>>
<<figpostamble>>%
\end{pspicture}
% End of code
<<endoutputsection>>%
\end{document}
%
<<startfigonlysection>>
\begin{pspicture}[linewidth=1bp<<graphstyle>>]<<bbox>>
\pstVerb{2 setlinejoin} % set line join style to 'mitre'
<<figpreamble>>%
<<drawcommands>>
<<figpostamble>>%
\end{pspicture}
<<endfigonlysection>>

Text encoding

Graphviz's default text encoding is utf8. The latin1 encoding can also be used. Utf8 is an unicode encoding and can in theory handle any international characters. However, LaTeX's unicode support is somewhat limited.

Fonts

No font information in the DOT file is preserved by dot2tex. However, there are several ways of modifying the generated LaTeX code to achieve some control of fonts and font sizes.

• Modifying the templates.
• Using the d2tdocpreamble and d2tfigpreamble attributes or command line options.

To increase the font size you can for instance insert a \Huge command in the figure preamble:

$ dot2tex -tmath --figpreamble="\Huge" ex1.dot > ex1huge.tex

Debugging

When making your own templates it is easy to make mistakes, and LaTeX markup in graphs may fail to compile. To make it easier to find errors, invoke dot2tex with the --debug option:

$ dot2tex --preproc --debug test.dot

A dot2tex.log file will then be generated with detailed information. In the log file you will find the generated LaTeX code, as well as well as the compilation log.

Be consistent

Be aware of differences between the template you use for preprocessing and code used to generate final output. This is especially important if you use the --figonly option and include the code in a master document. If a 10pt font is used during preprocessing, the result may not be optimal if a 12pt font is used in the final output.

Example. A graph is generated with:

$ dot2tex --preproc -tmath --nominsize ex1.dot > ex1tmp.dot

Running through dot2tex again with:

$ dot2tex figpreamble="\Huge" ex1tmp.dot > ex1huge.tex

gives labels that do not fit inside the nodes.