July 8, 2026

Research diagrams in TikZ when PowerPoint will not cut it

When to draw pipelines, automata, and commutative diagrams in TeX so they recolor for the journal and stay sharp in print.

PowerPoint diagrams become fuzzy rectangles in the PDF. TikZ diagrams stay vector, match the document fonts, and recolor when a journal demands grayscale or a different accent.

Start tiny

A three-node pipeline teaches the model:

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,arrows.meta}
\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.5cm]
  \node[draw] (a) {Data};
  \node[draw,right=of a] (b) {Model};
  \node[draw,right=of b] (c) {Loss};
  \draw[-Latex] (a) -- (b) -- (c);
\end{tikzpicture}

Lessons: first TikZ picture, nodes and arrows.

CS and engineering: flowcharts that align

Use the positioning library (below=of, right=of) so boxes share coordinates. Manual absolute coordinates are how diagrams rot when you add one node. Guide: aligned flowcharts.

Math and CS theory: commutative diagrams

tikz-cd is the standard for category-style diagrams without placing nodes by hand. Guide: commutative diagrams.

Export when a coauthor needs PNG

Compile a standalone TikZ file to PDF, then convert if a slide deck needs PNG. Or use the externalize library so each picture becomes its own PDF cache and the main paper compiles faster.

Keep diagrams in the repo

Store .tex sources for figures beside the paper, not only the exported PNG. When the journal asks for thicker lines, you edit the source and recompile instead of redrawing from a screenshot.

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