[Tex/LaTex] find documentation about TikZ/TikZPicture

documentationpackagestikz-pgf

When looking for different packages of creating timelines, I came across the following one:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{snakes}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[snake=zigzag, line before snake = 5mm, line after snake = 5mm]
%draw horizontal line   
\draw (0,0) -- (2,0);
\draw[snake] (2,0) -- (4,0);
\draw (4,0) -- (5,0);
\draw[snake] (5,0) -- (7,0);

%draw vertical lines
\foreach \x in {0,1,2,4,5,7}
   \draw (\x cm,3pt) -- (\x cm,-3pt);

%draw nodes
\draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 0 $} node[above=3pt] {$   $};
\draw (1,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 1 $} node[above=3pt] {$ 10 $};
\draw (2,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 2 $} node[above=3pt] {$ 20 $};
\draw (3,0) node[below=3pt] {$  $} node[above=3pt] {$  $};
\draw (4,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 5 $} node[above=3pt] {$ 50 $};
\draw (5,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 6 $} node[above=3pt] {$ 60 $};
\draw (6,0) node[below=3pt] {$  $} node[above=3pt] {$  $};
\draw (7,0) node[below=3pt] {$ n $} node[above=3pt] {$ 10n $};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

When typesetting, we get this:

enter image description here

But although the code says \usepackage{tikz}, there is not a package with this name. According to the CTAN site, there is a macro package called pgf that «comes with a user-friendly syntax layer called TikZ.»

I have checked the pgf documentation, of course, but there doesn't seem to be a section related to the code I posted above. There are many options (some are very nice too), but nothing like what I'm searching. Am I missing something? I'd like to know what can I do beyond what that code offers (if there is something, of course).

Also: what is TikZPicture? Is this what I should be looking for? I'm quite confused at the moment.

Best Answer

  1. pgf is a huge toolbox for graphics in TeX.

  2. tikz is something built on top of that, with much user-friendlier syntax. Most people use tikz and not pgf; the manual for tikz (and pgf at the same time) is called pgfmanual, which might be confusing.

  3. tikzpicture is a LaTeX environment defined by tikz.

The code you mentioned uses tikz; I'd recommend you to read chapters/sections 1 (basic ideas), 2 (the first tutorial, with examples of (among others) lines and nodes), 15.10 (decorations) and 56 (\foreach) of pgfmanual. Notice also that "snakes" were replaced by "decorations" in newer versions of tikz.

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