Tikz: text overlapped by objects

Question

I need to draw some groups of overlapping rectangles, for example:

rectangles

They are labeled by numbers, rectangle 1 is overlapping rectangle 2 etc.

Is there a way to change automatically the position of numbers so that they are all visible? Or to place all numbers over all the rectangles?

The code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,backgrounds}

\usepackage{etoolbox}% provides \preto
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\collect@draws}{}
\newcommand*{\reversedraws}{%
  \renewcommand*{\collect@draws}{}% initialize
  \look@for@draw
}
\newcommand*{\look@for@draw}{%
  \@ifnextchar\draw{%
    \catch@draw
  }{%
    \collect@draws % output the result
  }%
}
\def\catch@draw\draw#1;{%
  \preto\collect@draws{\draw#1;}%
  \look@for@draw
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 4]
\reversedraws
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.445041,0.801937) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$1$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.692021,0.356896) rectangle (1,1) node[midway] {$2$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.692021,0.356895) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$3$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.137063,0.158832) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$4$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.384043,0.713791) rectangle (1,0) node[midway] {$5$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.829084,0.515727) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$6$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.521105,0.872622) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$7$};
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 4]
\reversedraws
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.145041,0.801937) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$1$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.692021,0.356896) rectangle (0.7,1) node[midway] {$2$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.392021,0.356895) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$3$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.384043,0.713791) rectangle (0.7,0) node[midway] {$4$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.529084,0.515727) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$5$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.521105,0.872623) rectangle (0.7,1) node[midway] {$6$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.221105,0.872622) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$7$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.213127,0.229518) rectangle (0.7,1) node[midway] {$8$};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 30 '15 at 13:27

You can move the labels with xshift and yshift options (see the rectangle with number 5 like label)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,backgrounds}

\usepackage{etoolbox}% provides \preto
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\collect@draws}{}
\newcommand*{\reversedraws}{%
  \renewcommand*{\collect@draws}{}% initialize
   \look@for@draw
}
\newcommand*{\look@for@draw}{%
  \@ifnextchar\draw{%
    \catch@draw
  }{%
    \collect@draws % output the result
  }%
}
\def\catch@draw\draw#1;{%
  \preto\collect@draws{\draw#1;}%
  \look@for@draw
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 4]
\reversedraws
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.445041,0.801937) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$1$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.692021,0.356896) rectangle (1,1) node[midway] {$2$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.692021,0.356895) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$3$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.137063,0.158832) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$4$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.384043,0.713791) rectangle (1,0) node[yshift=-5pt,xshift=5pt,midway] {$5$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.829084,0.515727) rectangle (0,1) node[midway] {$6$};
\draw [fill=yellow] (0.521105,0.872622) rectangle (0,0) node[midway] {$7$};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

I have many images, I can´t do this in every single case. I hope there is another way... — Helena, May 30 '15 at 13:32
I suspect the overlapping from differents sides make a little hard to do it ... — juanuni, May 30 '15 at 13:41

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Automatically changing the position of nodes might be hard but doable if you know all the cases beforehand. I'm not sure it's worth it.

You can however put nodes in the foreground, also they need to have a background (to cover the lines behind), I think it's the best I can suggest considering the current information.

You can add [mid] to the node you want on the foreground, but if you want this to be applied to all, just include the mid style in the every node one. Although I suggest against this since you might affect other nodes that are better left alone (like node 6 in this example).

The options

every node/.style={midway},
every path/.style={fill=yellow},

apply to all nodes and all paths respectively. So you don't need to specify those anymore in your code. Generally, it's better to set general rules for things that are repeated a lot of times.

This is a modified solution from Loop Space's answer.

Output

Code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{etoolbox}% provides \preto

\usetikzlibrary{shapes,backgrounds}

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\collect@draws}{}
\newcommand*{\reversedraws}{%
  \renewcommand*{\collect@draws}{}% initialize
  \look@for@draw
}
\newcommand*{\look@for@draw}{%
  \@ifnextchar\draw{%
    \catch@draw
  }{%
    \collect@draws % output the result
  }%
}
\def\catch@draw\draw#1;{%
  \preto\collect@draws{\draw#1;}%
  \look@for@draw
}
\makeatother

%%%% Declaring layers
\pgfdeclarelayer{foreground}
\pgfsetlayers{main,foreground}

%%%% The node on layer definition
\makeatletter
\pgfkeys{%
  /tikz/node on layer/.code={
    \gdef\node@@on@layer{%
      \setbox\tikz@tempbox=\hbox\bgroup\pgfonlayer{#1}\unhbox\tikz@tempbox\endpgfonlayer\egroup}
    \aftergroup\node@on@layer
  }}
\def\node@on@layer{\aftergroup\node@@on@layer}
\makeatother

%%%% Options
\tikzset{
    every node/.style={midway},
    every path/.style={fill=yellow},
    mid/.style={midway, inner sep=2pt, outer sep=0,minimum size=1mm, fill=yellow,node on layer=foreground},
}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 4]
        \reversedraws
        \draw (0.445041,0.801937) rectangle (0,1) node {$1$};
        \draw (0.692021,0.356896) rectangle (1,1) node {$2$};
        \draw (0.692021,0.356895) rectangle (0,0) node {$3$};
        \draw (0.137063,0.158832) rectangle (0,1) node {$4$};
        \draw (0.384043,0.713791) rectangle (1,0) node[mid] {$5$};
        \draw (0.829084,0.515727) rectangle (0,1) node {$6$};
        \draw (0.521105,0.872622) rectangle (0,0) node {$7$};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Tikz: text overlapped by objects

2 Answers2

Output

Code