[Tex/LaTex] tikzpicture has different arrow tip colors in pdf output and dvi output

arrowscolordvipdftikz-pgf

i have the following mwe

\documentclass[tikz,border=4pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}[->,>=angle 45,scale=3,ultra thick]
    \draw[help lines] (-.1,-.9) grid (1.1,.1);
    \draw[>=triangle 60,fill=red,draw=teal](0,-0.1)--++(1,0);
    \draw[>=latex,fill=blue,draw=violet](0,-0.2)--++(1,0);
    \draw[>=stealth,fill=blue,draw=violet](0,-0.3)--++(1,0);
    \draw[](0,-0.4)--++(1,0);
    \draw[draw=cyan](0,-.5)--++(1,0);
    \draw[draw=orange](0,-.6)--++(1,0);
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

the compiled pdf file is expected as follows,
enter image description here

but the compiled dvi file have different arrow tip color,
enter image description here

after commenting one line

\documentclass[tikz,border=4pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}[->,>=angle 45,scale=3,ultra thick]
    \draw[help lines] (-.1,-.9) grid (1.1,.1);
    \draw[>=triangle 60,fill=red,draw=teal](0,-0.1)--++(1,0);
    \draw[>=latex,fill=blue,draw=violet](0,-0.2)--++(1,0);
    \draw[>=stealth,fill=blue,draw=violet](0,-0.3)--++(1,0);
    % \draw[](0,-0.4)--++(1,0);
    \draw[draw=cyan](0,-.5)--++(1,0);
    \draw[draw=orange](0,-.6)--++(1,0);
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

the output pictures are normal and consistant again,
enter image description here

is there anything special about the commented line, or that is just a bug somehow? i was think of exploiting that to change the arrow tip color only without resorting to the advanced decoration option. now it seems that changing color of angle 45 type arrow tip is indeed trickier than latex/stealth type.

Best Answer

CW from the comments:

.dvi files do not contain any color or graphics per se; what they can contain are specials. These specials are there for the benefit of post-processing backend software; like dvips, dvipdfm or the integrated pdf backend of pdflatex.

However, many dvi viewers will give it a shot to interpret some specials. Color changes are hard to implement, you need a whole color stack to pop and push colors at the appropriate moments (consider a color change inside floating material). Hence, many dvi viewers fail some of the time. Finally, Tikz is really meant only for pdf/ps, not dvi.

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] Filling the arrow tip and not the path using two different colors

the following answer is based on markings and postaction.

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=1cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{rotating}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{arrows,backgrounds,decorations.markings,shapes,shapes.multipart,positioning}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.7}

\begin{document}

    \definecolor{blue}{RGB}{0,127,255}

    \tikzset{
    opera/.style={fill=white, inner sep=0pt, right=3mm, text width= 5cm,font=\footnotesize},
    tear/.style={draw=black,-, 
    decoration={markings,mark=at position 1 with {\arrow[draw=black,fill=blue]{*}}},
    postaction=decorate},.
    }

    \begin{tikzpicture}

\draw[tear] (12, 5) -- (12,4) -- (10,3) -- (10,2);

   \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

which produces:
enter image description here

I removed the arrow head from your tear style and added decoration={markings,mark=at position 1 with {\arrow[draw=black,fill=blue]{*}}} and postaction=decorate. In this way the arrowhead is drawn as a decoration at the end of your segment, without filling the path. You also need to load the decoration as a postaction with postaction=decorate, so that only the arrow head is overwritten and not the entire line.

Edit: The previous approach is now (with the releasing of PGF 3.0.0) obsolete:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
    \usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
    \definecolor{myblue}{RGB}{0,127,255}

    \tikzset{
        opera/.style={
            fill=white,
            inner sep=0pt,
            right=3mm,
            text width= 5cm,
            font=\footnotesize
        },
        tear/.style={
            -{Circle[fill=myblue]}      %new code, requires arrows.meta and at least PGF 3.0.0
        },
     }
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[tear] (12, 5) -- (12,4) -- (10,3) -- (10,2) node[opera] {Not the path!};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

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

[Tex/LaTex] Filling the arrow tip and not the path using two different colors

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