[Tex/LaTex] Drawing a flag with TikZ

tikz-pgf

I am trying to create a flag in TikZ but aesthetically it's not the best. Here is my MWE:

\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{fullpage}
%\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsthm}
\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.symbols,shapes.misc}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.25,transform shape]
\draw[rounded corners=0.1pt] (0,2) rectangle (0.2,4);
\node[tape, draw,right] at (0.32,3.55) {\vphantom{\large i}\hphantom{TEST}};
%\draw[xshift=0.25cm](0,4) -- (1,4) -- (2,3) -- (3,2) -- (2,2) -- (1,2) -- (0,2) -- (0,4)--cycle;
\end{tikzpicture}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% or%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=1.00mm, y=1.00mm, inner xsep=0pt, inner ysep=0pt, outer xsep=0pt, outer ysep=0pt]
\path[line width=0mm] (138.71,542.78) rectangle +(14.34,14.44);
\definecolor{L}{rgb}{0,0,0}
\path[line width=0.30mm, draw=L] (140.71,555.13) [rotate around={270:(140.71,555.13)}] rectangle +(10.35,1.73);
\path[line width=0.30mm, draw=L] (142.93,554.82);
\path[line width=0.30mm, draw=L] (142.98,549.72) .. controls (142.98,549.72) and (142.98,549.72) .. (142.98,549.72) .. controls (142.99,551.40) and (143.07,553.03) .. (143.01,554.75) .. controls (143.00,554.94) and (142.98,555.18) .. (143.11,555.20) .. controls (144.51,555.37) and (146.55,554.72) .. (147.61,553.60) .. controls (148.77,552.38) and (150.28,551.53) .. (150.87,552.64) .. controls (151.02,552.93) and (151.94,548.83) .. (147.57,549.33) .. controls (146.00,549.51) and (144.56,549.84) .. (142.98,549.72) -- cycle;
\path[line width=0.30mm, draw=L] (147.56,553.67) -- (147.53,549.33);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

The second is drawn with TpX. The display are not the best. Maybe a flag like the one shown here in tex.stackexchange.com would suffice.

enter image description here

I am really just looking for a neat representation of a flag which I can scale. This flag will be displayed like an icon on my Lecture Notes for important milestones in certain topics.

Best Answer

A black flag but it's easy to change the form or the colors

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{scope}[rotate=10]
    \begin{scope}[every path/.style={fill=black}]
        \draw (-.2,0) to [bend right] (.2,0) -- (.2,8) to [bend left] (-.2,8) -- cycle;
        \draw (0,8) circle (.4) ;
    \draw [rounded corners] (.2,7.6) to [out=60 ,in=180] (3,8) to [out=0, in = 200] (8,9) to [out=-85 ,in=85] (7.5,4) to [out=220,in=0](5,3) to [out=180,in=10] (.2,3) to [out =85,in=-80]  (.2,7.6) ; 
\end{scope}
\end{scope}  
\end{tikzpicture} 
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{scope}[rotate=10,scale=.5]
    \begin{scope}[every path/.style={shade, top color=black,bottom color=darkgray}]
        \draw (-.2,0) to [bend right] (.2,0) -- (.2,8) to [bend left] (-.2,8) -- cycle;
        \draw (0,8) circle (.4) ;
    \draw [rounded corners] (.2,7.6) to [out=60 ,in=180] (3,8) to [out=0, in = 200] (8,9) to [out=-85 ,in=85] (7.5,4) to [out=220,in=0](5,3) to [out=180,in=10] (.2,3) to [out =85,in=-80]  (.2,7.6) ; 
\end{scope}
\end{scope}  
\end{tikzpicture} 

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.5]

\begin{scope}[rotate=10]
    \begin{scope}[every path/.style={fill=black}]
        \draw (-.2,0) to [bend right] (.2,0) -- (.2,8) to [bend left] (-.2,8) -- cycle;
        \draw (0,8) circle (.4) ;
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}
\clip [rounded corners] (.2,7.6) to [out=60 ,in=180] coordinate[pos=.95] (h1) (3,8) to [out=0, in = 200]  coordinate[pos=.5] (h2) (8,9) coordinate(h3) to [out=-85 ,in=85] (7.5,4) coordinate(b3) to [out=220,in=0] coordinate[pos=.85] (b2)(5,3)  to [out=180,in=10]  coordinate[pos=.5] (b1)(.2,3) to [out =85,in=-80]  (.2,7.6) ;
\fill[blue] (-1,9) -- (h1) to[out=-85,in=80] (b1) -- (0,0) --cycle;     
\fill[red] (h2) to[out=-85,in=80] (b2) -- ++(0,-0.75) -- ([yshift=-1.25]b3) --(b3) to  [out=85 ,in=-85]  (h3) -- cycle  ; 
\end{scope} 
\draw[thick] [rounded corners] (.2,7.6) to [out=60 ,in=180] coordinate[pos=.95] (h1) (3,8) to [out=0, in = 200]  coordinate[pos=.5] (h2) (8,9) coordinate(h3) to [out=-85 ,in=85] (7.5,4) coordinate(b3) to [out=220,in=0] coordinate[pos=.85] (b2)(5,3)  to [out=180,in=10]  coordinate[pos=.5] (b1)(.2,3) to [out =85,in=-80]  (.2,7.6) ;      
\draw[thick]  (h1) to[out=-85,in=80] (b1); 
\draw[thick]  (h2) to[out=-85,in=80] (b2);  
\end{scope} 
\end{tikzpicture} 

\end{document}

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ: Cropping the Bounding Box

The code adds some completely useless invisible (or rather white) stuff. The lines

\clip(0pt,403pt) -- (389.957pt,403pt) -- (389.957pt,99.6166pt) -- (0pt,99.6166pt) -- (0pt,403pt);
\color[rgb]{1,1,1}
\fill(3.76406pt,399.236pt) -- (380.923pt,399.236pt) -- (380.923pt,253.19pt) -- (3.76406pt,253.19pt) -- (3.76406pt,399.236pt);
\fill(53.4497pt,394.719pt) -- (374.901pt,394.719pt) -- (374.901pt,289.325pt) -- (53.4497pt,289.325pt) -- (53.4497pt,394.719pt);

draw a white background that is larger than the actual picture. TikZ sees that and thinks it is part of the picture. Simply removing/uncommenting these lines removes most of the whitespace.

Near the end of the first scope,

\color[rgb]{1,1,1}
\fill(3.76406pt,249.426pt) -- (386.193pt,249.426pt) -- (386.193pt,103.381pt) -- (3.76406pt,103.381pt) -- (3.76406pt,249.426pt);

does the same. Additionally (near the end of the second scope),

\pgftext[center, base, at={\pgfpoint{220.95pt}{106.392pt}}]{\sffamily\fontsize{9}{0}\selectfont{\textbf{ }}}

adds a blank node below the picture, again enlarging the bounding box.

Removing all those lines gives a tight bounding box.

As far as I know, TikZ cannot do the cropping for you, as it can't know whether the white stuff is intentional or not (there might for example be a dark background behind the image so that white is visible).

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

The source of the difficulty is that ellipses are constructed in a particular way in TikZ. They are paths that start from the x-axis and proceed counter-clockwise around their centre. The vast majority of the time, the exact parametrisation doesn't matter. You appear to have found the one situation where it does!

In the actual question, you only want to be able to mirror the ellipse, and so draw it starting from the negative x-axis (the title of the question suggests a more flexible approach). That's actually not too hard since we can exploit the symmetry of the ellipse. The key is to provide it with a negative x-radius, since then it will start from the negative x-axis (and proceed clockwise, but we could correct for that by negating the y-radius as well). To do this, we interrupt the call from the node shape to the drawing command and flip the sign of the x-radius. The simplest way to do this is to redefine the \pgfpathellipse macro to do the negation and then call the original macro. The following code does this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations,shapes,decorations.markings}
\makeatletter
\let\origpgfpathellipse=\pgfpathellipse
\def\revpgfpathellipse#1#2#3{%
  #2%
  \pgf@xa=-\pgf@x
  \origpgfpathellipse{#1}{\pgfqpoint{\pgf@xa}{0pt}}{#3}}
\makeatother

\tikzset{
  reversed ellipse/.style={
    ellipse,
    reverse the ellipse%
  },
  reverse the ellipse/.code={
    \let\pgfpathellipse=\revpgfpathellipse
  }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,0) {hello world};

\node[reversed ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,-2) {hello world};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Here's the result:

rotated ellipse

(the arrow got clipped, but you can see where it lies)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ: Cropping the Bounding Box

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

Related Question