TikZiT is a super simple GUI editor for graphs and string diagrams. Its native file format is a subset of PGF/TikZ, which means TikZiT files can be included directly in papers typeset using LaTeX. Pre-built versions are available for systems running Windows, Linux, or macOS. Packages are available for some Linux distributions, or you can build from source.

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Windows: Click 'Windows (exe)' above to download a zip file and extract it to a convenient place (e.g. C:tikzit). If you wish to associate .tikz files with TikZiT, run the included .reg file (optional). Note you may need to edit the .reg file with a text editor if you place TikZiT in a different location. You can also install with Chocolatey via choco install tikzit.

Linux: If you do not wish to build from source, click 'Linux (portable binary)' above to download a tarball and extract it to a convient place (e.g. your home directory). Then, launch the application with ~/tikzit/bin/tikzit (assuming you extracted into your home directory). You may wish to add ~/tikzit/bin to your PATH and install the application launcher and file associations by running ./install-local.sh from inside the TikZiT directory.

There are also packages available for several Linux distributions, maintained by volunteers in the open source community. Here are the ones I know about:

Ubuntu 19.10+, Debian testing/unstable: apt install tikzit
arch linux: pacman -S tikzit
NixOS: nix-env -i tikzit
Fedora 32: yum install tikzit

If you are a package maintainer for another distro, get in touch and I will add instructions here.

macOS: Click 'macOS (dmg)' above to download a dmg file. Open this file and copy tikzit.app to your Applications folder. Depending on your system settings, the first time you run TikZiT, you may need to right-click the .app file and select Open from the menu to get the option to run it. After this, you can run TikZiT like a normal application. You can also install with HomeBrew by running brew install tikzit in a terminal.

Note: The version of TikZiT above requires at least macOS version 10.11 (Yosemite). If you are running an older version of macOS (10.8-10.10), use this version instead. However, to get the latest version of TikZiT, it is recommended to update your operating system.

While TikZiT is easy to use, a few things might not be obvious the first time you run the program. This guide should get you going as quickly as possible. For mac users: throughout this tutorial, substitute ctrl = command and alt = option, as usual.

$Editor$

This tutorial will cover basic editing all the way up to building a LaTeX paper with TikZiT figures in it. Create a new, empty folder somewhere on your computer (which I will refer to as tikzpaper throughout this tutorial). Download tikzit.sty and place it in the folder. Also, create a new sub-directory called figures, which we will use later.

Basic node and edge editing

When you open TikZiT for the first time, you will see something that looks like this:

The window is divided into two parts: the main part is the graph editor and the part along the side is the style palette. For editing graphs, there are 3 tools: the select tool, the add node tool, and the add edge tool. These can be selected quickly by pressing s, n, or e while the graph editor is in focus.

Pick the node tool and click on the graph a few times to add some nodes. You will notice these appear in TikZiT as dashed circles with a small dot in the middle. These are called invisible nodes. These will not appear in the actual typeset output. However, they can be labelled with pieces of LaTeX code (see below), which will appear in your figure, or used to attach edges. To add edges, select the edge tool and click and drag from one node to another.

Pick the select tool again. You can select individual nodes or edges by clicking on them. You can select multiple nodes by dragging a box around the, and you can select multiple nodes or edges by clicking while holding down the ctrl key.

Selected nodes can be moved by dragging the mouse, or by pressing ctrl + arrow keys. Nodes are locked on a grid, so they normally only move in increments of 0.25 in TikZ coordinates. However, they can be 'nudged' by increments of 0.025 by pressing ctrl + shift + arrow keys. This is convenient e.g. for centering nodes between others (5 nudges = 1/2 normal grid cell).

Double-clicking a node gives the ability to set a label, which can contain LaTeX code:

Clicking on an edge reveals extra controls for bending the edge. There are two kinds of bend-modes in TikZiT, the basic bend mode (blue controls). Dragging either of the control points will cause the edge to bend to the left or the right:

Double-clicking the edge will change it to bezier bend mode (green controls). Now, each of the control points can be dragged independently:

Adding styles

Before we can create non-invisible nodes, we will need some styles. To set up styles, we will first create a new style file. In the style palette, click the button, go to the tikzpaper folder, and give the new style file a name, e.g. sample.tikzstyles. Now, we can edit the style file by clicking . This will open the style editor:

On the left side of the window, there is a list of node styles, followed by a list of edge styles. Currently, both lists contain only a single style, called 'none'. Click the '+' under the list of node styles to add a new node style, and call it red dot. Set the fill color to red, the draw color to black, and the shape to 'circle'. Then, click '+' again to add a new style called green dot. Set the fill color to green, the draw color to black, and again the shape to 'circle'.

Note: You can optionally set 'in TikZiT' versions of the 'draw', 'fill', and 'shape' properties. This will make nodes or edges look different in TikZiT, but have no effect on how they are typeset. This is useful for visually distinguishing similar styles.

Note: Arrowhead expressions containing a dash (e.g. -, ->, <-, |->, <->) play a special role in TikZiT. If you change them manually or use them as style names, you might get some strange behaviour. To customise the appearance of arrow heads/tails, try adding a property in the style editor called > or < and setting it to stealth, latex, etc. (see the PGF/TiKZ manual for possible arrowhead styles).

You may also wish to add some edge styles by clicking the '+' under the list of edge styles. If you have many styles, you can also organise them into categories by setting the 'Category' field. When you are done adding styles, click 'Save and Close' to return to the graph editor.

Next is the 'Properties' box. Here, you can add properties to the style which will affect the way a node or edge appears when you typeset it, but may not affect its appearance in the TikZiT GUI. Properties come in two flavours: normal properties, which have a name and a value (e.g. line width=1pt) and atoms, which only have a name (e.g. ultra thick). You can add a normal property by clicking '+' under the Properties box and an atom by clicking '+a'.

Any valid PGF/TikZ is fair game for properties, and there are tons of ways to customise the appearance of nodes and edges this way (e.g. making them thick or thin, have crazy shapes, gradients, dashes and dots, brackets, ..). The best way to find what you need is by looking in the PGF/TiKZ manual or finding examples on texample.net, the TeX StackExchange, etc.

Now, you will see your new styles in the style palette on the right. To apply a style to a node (or edge), select the node (or edge) it and double-click on the style. If you create new nodes and edges with a certain style selected

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