[Tex/LaTex] How to create legend lines with a marker in a figure caption

tikz-pgf

I'm trying to create a legend for use in the caption of a plot (to match a plot created in matlab, so sadly, I can't just link to the figure.). I know that tikz can create values for use in a legend, as in the MWE included below. But what I really want is to also have a marker symbol: a dashed line with a circle -o-

I think maybe I would want to add a node (e.g., draw a short line, draw a symbol, draw another short line). So then this would give me something like

\newcommand{\hwplotA}{\raisebox{2pt}{\tikz{\draw[black,dashed,mark=o,line width=0.9pt](0,0) -- (5mm,0);\node at (2.5mm,0) {$o$}}}}

although this doesn't compile. The solution listed by the OP at the link below doesn't work for me (putting a zero-sized tikz plot) because it seems to not play nicely with other packages I'm using.

Any ideas?

MWE to create a legend line from How to draw legend lines in caption/text without including original plot's TikZ picture?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}

\newcommand{\hwplotA}{\raisebox{2pt}{\tikz{\draw[red,solid,line width=0.9pt](0,0) -- (5mm,0);}}}
\newcommand{\hwplotB}{\raisebox{2pt}{\tikz{\draw[black,dashed,line width=1.2pt](0,0) -- (5mm,0);}}}

This is how I reference to {\hwplotA} and {\hwplotB}. 

\end{document}

Best Answer

To illustrate Christian Feuersänger's solution from Using a pgfplots-style legend in a plain-old tikzpicture :

Do you really want the legend in the caption? Between the picture and the caption should do.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\makeatletter
% argument #1: any options
\newenvironment{customlegend}[1][]{%
    \begingroup
    \let\addlegendimage=\pgfplots@addlegendimage
    \let\addlegendentry=\pgfplots@addlegendentry
    % inits/clears the lists (which might be populated from previous axes):
    \pgfplots@init@cleared@structures
    \pgfplotsset{#1}%
}{%
    % draws the legend:
    \pgfplots@createlegend
    \endgroup
}%
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{customlegend}[legend columns=-1]
\addlegendimage{red,mark=*}
\addlegendentry{raw data}
\addlegendimage{blue,mark=triangle*}
\addlegendentry{cooked data}
\end{customlegend}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

legend

Related Solutions

[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)

[Tex/LaTex] tikz-timing: text labels in symbols other than D, and time axis discontinuities

You can use stacked material inside D by simply using \shortstack{$\mathbf0$\\a1}. There is no need to use TeX lower-level primitives for that.

Also the node character N also takes a content if used with { } and also options using [ ], i.e. N[<options>]{<content>}, so you can place text into the timing diagram directly, without extracode. By default nodes are set using the coordinate shape, you need to use the rectangle option to allow for a visible content.

I personally use dotted or dashed lines (something like ;[dashed] <chars>;) to draw discontinuities.

BTW, allowing text content for other characters as well is on my long-term TODO list.

Here a way you can implement such a diagram using dotted lines and direct node content. I'm moving the node position manually to get the correct vertical position.

\documentclass[convert=png]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\usetikztiminglibrary{nicetabs} % a bit strange with \Huge; use belowrulesep to adjust

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{type1cm} % to avoid "LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `OML/cmm/m/it' in size <2> not available"; tlmgr install type1cm
\usepackage{helvet}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikztimingtable}[%
    timing/dslope=0.1,
    timing/name/.style={font=\sffamily\scriptsize},
    timing/d/text/.style={font=\sffamily\tiny},
    grayz/.style={timing/z/.append style={gray}},
    timing/n/.style={rectangle},
    timing/metachar={{K}[2]{#1l !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 0$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} #1l}},
    timing/metachar={{J}[2]{#1h !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 1$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} #1h}},
  ]
  Sig1 & Z H K{a1} K{2} J{3} ;[gray] D;[dotted,gray] D;[gray] D; J{$N_a$} Z \\
  Sig2 & Z H J{1} J{1} K{3} ;[grayz] Z;[dotted,grayz] Z;[grayz] Z; K{$N_b$} Z \\
\extracode
  % foreground:
  \tablerules
  \tablegrid[black!25]
\end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}

Result

Best Answer

Related Solutions

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

[Tex/LaTex] tikz-timing: text labels in symbols other than D, and time axis discontinuities

Related Question