Do I paste a whole document?
No. Paste the picture from \beginpicture to \endpicture; the renderer supplies the document and loads PiCTeX.
Tools · PiCTeX
Online PiCTeX editor
Paste a PiCTeX picture, from \beginpicture to \endpicture, and get it typeset by TeX. Axes, plots, histograms and labelled points work; download the result as SVG or PNG.
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Histogram: sums of two dice How many of the 36 ways to roll two dice give each total, as a PiCTeX histogram. Seven comes up most often, six ways out of 36.
In your browser, drawn with Plotly.js (MIT), Apache ECharts (Apache-2.0, notice), Chart.js (MIT).
01 Examples
PiCTeX examples to start from.
Histogram: sums of two dice
How many of the 36 ways to roll two dice give each total, as a PiCTeX histogram. Seven comes up most often, six ways out of 36.
Source
\beginpicture
\setcoordinatesystem units <6mm,6mm>
\setplotarea x from 1 to 13, y from 0 to 7
\axis bottom label {sum of two dice} ticks withvalues 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 / at 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 / /
\axis left label {ways} ticks numbered from 0 to 6 by 1 /
\sethistograms
\plot 1.5 0 2.5 1 3.5 2 4.5 3 5.5 4 6.5 5 7.5 6 8.5 5 9.5 4 10.5 3 11.5 2 12.5 1 /
\put {36 outcomes, 6 of them sum to 7} at 7 6.7
\endpicture
Parabola with focus and directrix
y = x²/2 + 1 with its focus and directrix marked: every point on the curve is as far from the focus as from the dashed line.
Source
\beginpicture
\setcoordinatesystem units <1cm,1cm>
\setplotarea x from -3 to 3, y from 0 to 5.5
\axis bottom ticks numbered from -3 to 3 by 1 /
\axis left ticks numbered from 0 to 5 by 1 /
\setquadratic
\plot -3 5.5 -2 3 -1 1.5 0 1 1 1.5 2 3 3 5.5 /
\setlinear
\setdashes
\plot -3 0.5 3 0.5 /
\setsolid
\put {$\bullet$} at 0 1.5
\put {focus $(0,\frac{3}{2})$} [l] <2mm,0mm> at 0 1.5
\put {directrix $y=\frac{1}{2}$} [l] <0mm,2.5mm> at 1.2 0.5
\put {$y=\frac{x^2}{2}+1$} [l] <2mm,0mm> at 2 3
\endpicture
Supply and demand graph
Two straight lines and the point where they cross: the market's equilibrium price P* and quantity Q*, with dashed guides to each axis.
Source
\beginpicture
\setcoordinatesystem units <1cm,1cm>
\setplotarea x from 0 to 5, y from 0 to 5
\axis bottom /
\put {quantity} [rt] <0mm,-2mm> at 5 0
\axis left /
\put {price} [rt] <-2mm,0mm> at 0 5
\plot 0.5 0.8 4.5 4.6 /
\plot 0.5 4.6 4.5 0.8 /
\put {supply} [l] <1mm,0mm> at 4.5 4.6
\put {demand} [l] <1mm,0mm> at 4.5 0.8
\setdashes
\plot 0 2.7 2.5 2.7 2.5 0 /
\setsolid
\put {$\bullet$} at 2.5 2.7
\put {equilibrium} [b] <0mm,2mm> at 2.5 2.7
\put {$P^*$} [r] <-1mm,0mm> at 0 2.7
\put {$Q^*$} [t] <0mm,-1mm> at 2.5 0
\endpicture02 About PiCTeX
What PiCTeX is good for.
PiCTeX is one of the oldest TeX drawing packages, built from plain TeX macros: you set a coordinate system and plot area, then draw axes, curves and labels. It is still found in older papers and class notes, and it is compact for plots with labelled axes.
Are curves smooth?
Use \setquadratic before \plot for a curve through your points, as in the parabola example, and \setlinear to go back to straight segments.
Is anything I send kept?
No. Pictures are typeset in a sandbox with no network and no access to files outside their own folder, and nothing is stored.