Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ pgf/tikZ | Rotated Text

[dheanes]

Dear All,

This is my first post on any kind of internet forum. I'm writing a report with LaTeX and would like to use TikZ for some diagrams, including a timeline with labels attached. I would like to have branches coming off the main, horizontal, line at an angle of 30deg or so, and to label each with one or two words of text PARALLEL to the branch, i.e. also rotated.

Using the following lines I can draw a timeline with an angled branch, labelled in the middle, but the text is not properly rotated:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

% draw a timeline
\begin{tikzpicture}

% draw horizontal line
\draw (0,0) --(10,0);

% draw vertical lines
\foreach \x in {0,0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5,4.0,4.5,5.0,5.5,6.0,6.5,7.0,7.5,8.
0,8.5,9.0,9.5,10.0}
\draw(\x cm,3pt) -- (\x cm,-3pt);

% put in dates
\draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 1990 $} node[above=3pt] {$ $};
\draw (2.5,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 1995 $} node[above=3pt] {$ $};
\draw (5,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 2000 $} node[above=3pt] {$ $};
\draw (7.5,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 2005 $} node[above=3pt] {$ $};
\draw (10,0) node[below=3pt] {$ 2010 $} node[above=3pt] {$ $};

% have a go at attaching lines, and rotating them
\draw [rotate around={30:(0,0)}] (0,0) -- (1.5,0) node {first paper} -- (3,0);

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I can't find any examples of rotated text in Till Tantau's "The TikZ and PGF Packages", and I can't see anything in there that I could use to tie the branch and text togther so that they can be rotated as one. Does anyone know how to make the text end up rotated?

Best,
Daniel.

[localghost]

[...] I can't find any examples of rotated text in Till Tantau's "The TikZ and PGF Packages", and I can't see anything in there that I could use to tie the branch and text togther so that they can be rotated as one. Does anyone know how to make the text end up rotated? [...]

I think that Section 15.8 of the pgf/tikZ manual is very clear in that point.

Code: Select all

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    % draw horizontal line
    \draw (0,0) -- (10,0);

    % draw vertical lines
    \foreach \x in {0,0.5,...,10}
      \draw(\x cm,3pt) -- (\x cm,-3pt);

    % put in dates
    \foreach \x/\xtext in {0/1990,2.5/1995,5/2000,7.5/2005,10/2010}
      \draw (\x,0) node[below=3pt]{\xtext};

    % have a go at attaching lines, and rotating them
    \foreach \x/\text in {0/{First Paper},2.5/{Second Paper}}
      \draw (\x,0) -- +(30:3) node[midway,sloped,above]{\text};
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I added a second branch just to give you a hint how to continue with other branches.


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten