Picture Environment

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The picture environment allows you to create just about any kind of picture you want containing text, lines, arrows and circles.

      \begin{picture}(width,height)(x offset,y offset)
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       .
       picture commands
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      \end{picture}

You tell LaTeX where to put things in the picture by specifying their coordinates. A coordinate is a number that may have a decimal point and a minus sign — a number like 5, 2.3 or −3.1416. A coordinate specifies a length in multiples of the unit length \unitlength, so if \unitlength has been set to 1cm, then the coordinate 2.54 specifies a length of 2.54 centimeters. You can change the value of \unitlength anywhere you want, using the \setlength command, but strange things will happen if you try changing it inside the picture environment.

A position is a pair of coordinates, such as (2.4,−5), specifying the point with x-coordinate 2.4 and y-coordinate −5. Coordinates are specified in the usual way with respect to an origin, which is normally at the lower-left corner of the picture. Note that when a position appears as an argument, it is not enclosed in braces; the parentheses serve to delimit the argument.

The picture environment has one mandatory argument, which is a position. It specifies the size of the picture. The environment produces a rectangular box with width and height determined by this argument’s x- and y-coordinates.

The picture environment also has an optional position argument, following the size argument, that can change the origin. (Unlike ordinary optional arguments, this argument is not contained in square brackets.) The optional argument gives the coordinates of the point at the lower-left corner of the picture (thereby determining the origin). For example, if \unitlength has been set to 1mm, the command

  \begin{picture}(100,200)(10,20)

produces a picture of width 100 millimeters and height 200 millimeters, whose lower-left corner is the point (10,20) and whose upper-right corner is therefore the point (110,220). When you first draw a picture, you will omit the optional argument, leaving the origin at the lower-left corner. If you then want to modify your picture by shifting everything, you just add the appropriate optional argument.

The environment’s mandatory argument determines the nominal size of the picture. This need bear no relation to how large the picture really is; LaTeX will happily allow you to put things outside the picture, or even off the page. The picture’s nominal size is used by LaTeX in determining how much room to leave for it.

Everything that appears in a picture is drawn by the \put command. The command

  \put (11.3,-.3){…}

puts the object specified by … in the picture, with its reference point at coordinates (11.3,-.3). The reference points for various objects will be described below.

The \put command creates an “LR box”. You can put anything in the text argument of the \put command that you’d put into the argument of an \mbox and related commands. When you do this, the reference point will be the lower left corner of the box.

\circle

Command:

    \circle[*]{diameter}

The \circle command produces a circle with a diameter as close to the specified one as possible. If the *-form of the command is used, LaTeX draws a solid circle.

Note that only circles up to 40 pt can be drawn.

\dashbox

Command:

    \dashbox{dash-length}(width,height){…}

Draws a box with a dashed line. The \dashbox has an extra argument which specifies the width of each dash. A dashed box looks best when the width and height are multiples of the dash-length.

\frame

Command:

    \frame{…}

The \frame command puts a rectangular frame around the object specified in the argument. The reference point is the bottom left corner of the frame. No extra space is put between the frame and the object.

\framebox

Command:

    \framebox(width,height)[position]{…}

The \framebox command is exactly the same as the \makebox command, except that it puts a frame around the outside of the box that it creates.

The \framebox command produces a rule of thickness \fboxrule, and leaves a space \fboxsep between the rule and the contents of the box.

\line

Command:

    \line(x-slope,y-slope){length}

The \line command draws a line of the specified length and slope.

Note that LaTeX can only draw lines with slope = x/y, where x and y have integer values from −6 through 6.

\linethickness

Command:

    \linethickness{dimension}

Declares the thickness of horizontal and vertical lines in a picture environment to be dimension, which must be a positive length. It does not affect the thickness of slanted lines and circles, or the quarter circles drawn by \oval to form the corners of an oval.

\makebox

Command:

    \makebox(width,height)[position]{…}

The \makebox command for the picture environment is similar to the normal \makebox command except that you must specify a width and height in multiples of \unitlength. The optional argument, [position], specifies the quadrant that your text appears in. You may select up to two of the following:

\multiput

Command:

    \multiput(x-coord,y-coord)(delta-x,delta-y){number of copies}{object}

The \multiput command can be used when you are putting the same object in a regular pattern across a picture.

\oval

Command:

    \oval(width,height)[portion]

The \oval command produces a rectangle with rounded corners. The optional argument, [portion], allows you to select part of the oval.

\put

Command:

    \put(x-coord,y-coord){ … }

The \put command places the item specified by the mandatory argument at the given coordinates.

\shortstack

Command:

    \shortstack[position]{… \\ … \\ …}

The \shortstack command produces a stack of objects. The valid positions are:

\vector

Command:

    \vector(x-slope,y-slope){length}

The \vector command draws a line with an arrow of the specified length and slope. The x-slope and y-slope values must lie between −4 and +4, inclusive.

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