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PGF/TikZ Manual

The TikZ and PGF Packages
Manual for version 3.1.10

Installation and Configuration

8 Installation

There are different ways of installing pgf, depending on your system and needs, and you may need to install other packages as well, see below. Before installing, you may wish to review the licenses under which the package is distributed, see Section 9.

Typically, the package will already be installed on your system. Naturally, in this case you do not need to worry about the installation process at all and you can skip the rest of this section.

8.1 Package and Driver Versions

This documentation is part of version 3.1.10 of the pgf package. In order to run pgf, you need a reasonably recent installation. When using , you need the following packages installed (newer versions should also work):

  • • xcolor version 2.00.

With plain , xcolor is not needed, but you obviously do not get its (full) functionality.

Currently, pgf supports the following backend drivers:

  • • luatex version 0.76 or higher. Most earlier versions also work.

  • • pdftex version 0.14 or higher. Earlier versions do not work.

  • • dvips version 5.94a or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

    For inter-picture connections, you need to process pictures using pdftex version 1.40 or higher running in DVI mode.

  • • dvipdfm version 0.13.2c or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

    For inter-picture connections, you need to process pictures using pdftex version 1.40 or higher running in DVI mode.

  • • dvipdfmx version 0.13.2c or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

  • • dvisvgm version 1.2.2 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

  • • tex4ht version 2003-05-05 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

  • • vtex version 8.46a or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

  • • textures version 2.1 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

  • • xetex version 0.996 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

Currently, pgf supports the following formats:

  • • latex with complete functionality.

  • • plain with complete functionality, except for graphics inclusion, which works only for pdf.

  • • context with complete functionality, except for graphics inclusion, which works only for pdf.

For more details, see Section 10.

8.2 Installing Prebundled Packages

I do not create or manage prebundled packages of pgf, but, fortunately, nice other people do. I cannot give detailed instructions on how to install these packages, since I do not manage them, but I can tell you were to find them. If you have a problem with installing, you might wish to have a look at the Debian page or the MiK page first.

8.2.1 Debian

The command “apt-get install texlive-pictures” should do the trick. Sit back and relax.

8.2.2 MiKTeX

For MiK, use the update wizard to install the (latest versions of the) packages called pgf and xcolor.

8.3 Installation in a texmf Tree

For a permanent installation, you place the files of the pgf package in an appropriate texmf tree.

When you ask to use a certain class or package, it usually looks for the necessary files in so-called texmf trees. These trees are simply huge directories that contain these files. By default, looks for files in three different texmf trees:

  • • The root texmf tree, which is usually located at /usr/share/texmf/ or c:\texmf\ or somewhere similar.

  • • The local texmf tree, which is usually located at /usr/local/share/texmf/ or c:\localtexmf\ or somewhere similar.

  • • Your personal texmf tree, which is usually located in your home directory at ~/texmf/ or ~/Library/texmf/.

You should install the packages either in the local tree or in your personal tree, depending on whether you have write access to the local tree. Installation in the root tree can cause problems, since an update of the whole installation will replace this whole tree.

8.3.1 Installation that Keeps Everything Together

Once you have located the right texmf tree, you must decide whether you want to install pgf in such a way that “all its files are kept in one place” or whether you want to be “tds-compliant”, where tds means “ directory structure”.

If you want to keep “everything in one place”, inside the texmf tree that you have chosen create a sub-sub-directory called texmf/tex/generic/pgf or texmf/tex/generic/pgf-3.1.10, if you prefer. Then place all files of the pgf package in this directory. Finally, rebuild ’s filename database. This is done by running the command texhash or mktexlsr (they are the same). In MiK, there is a menu option to do this.

8.3.2 Installation that is TDS-Compliant

While the above installation process is the most “natural” one and although I would like to recommend it since it makes updating and managing the pgf package easy, it is not tds-compliant. If you want to be tds-compliant, proceed as follows: (If you do not know what tds-compliant means, you probably do not want to be tds-compliant.)

The .tar file of the pgf package contains the following files and directories at its root: README, doc, generic, plain, and latex. You should “merge” each of the four directories with the following directories texmf/doc, texmf/tex/generic, texmf/tex/plain, and texmf/tex/latex. For example, in the .tar file the doc directory contains just the directory pgf, and this directory has to be moved to texmf/doc/pgf. The root README file can be ignored since it is reproduced in doc/pgf/README.

You may also consider keeping everything in one place and using symbolic links to point from the tds-compliant directories to the central installation.

For a more detailed explanation of the standard installation process of packages, you might wish to consult http://www.ctan.org/installationadvice/. However, note that the pgf package does not come with a .ins file (simply skip that part).

8.4 Updating the Installation

To update your installation from a previous version, all you need to do is to replace everything in the directory texmf/tex/generic/pgf with the files of the new version (or in all the directories where pgf was installed, if you chose a tds-compliant installation). The easiest way to do this is to first delete the old version and then proceed as described above. Sometimes, there are changes in the syntax of certain commands from version to version. If things no longer work that used to work, you may wish to have a look at the release notes and at the change log.