TikZ-PGF – How to Draw Graphs in LaTeX

Question

I need to draw simple graph (for example Petersen Graph) in LaTeX. I am using Kile in Ubuntu. I exactly don't know that which package should I use. Any suggestion with example is highly expected.

Answer 1

I think the best approach is to use the tkz-berge from Altermundus. You can also find a complete guide here.

However, to make a simple example just using TikZ, you can follow this approach:

\documentclass {article}

% example taken from 
% http://www.guitex.org/home/images/doc/GuideGuIT/introingtikz.pdf

\usepackage {tikz}
\usetikzlibrary {positioning}
%\usepackage {xcolor}
\definecolor {processblue}{cmyk}{0.96,0,0,0}
\begin {document}
\begin {center}
\begin {tikzpicture}[-latex ,auto ,node distance =4 cm and 5cm ,on grid ,
semithick ,
state/.style ={ circle ,top color =white , bottom color = processblue!20 ,
draw,processblue , text=blue , minimum width =1 cm}]
\node[state] (C)
{$1$};
\node[state] (A) [above left=of C] {$0$};
\node[state] (B) [above right =of C] {$2$};
\path (A) edge [loop left] node[left] {$1/4$} (A);
\path (C) edge [bend left =25] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (A);
\path (A) edge [bend right = -15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (C);
\path (A) edge [bend left =25] node[above] {$1/4$} (B);
\path (B) edge [bend left =15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (A);
\path (C) edge [bend left =15] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (B);
\path (B) edge [bend right = -25] node[below =0.15 cm] {$1/2$} (C);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

which leads to:

It is an example of a Markov Chain in which several TikZ options are used. In the same guide, you will find an example in which nodes are placed in a matrix.