Inserting text inside an arrow in Tikz

Question

I want to draw an arrow between two nodes (a) and (b), and write text inside the arrow. How can I modify this command to control the size of the arrow head and insert the text?

\draw[->, >=latex, blue!20!white, line width=15pt]   (a) to (b) ;

Ingo · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-05T16:29:01.810

18

You can perfectly use the shapes library for this. Use \usetikzlibrary{shapes.arrows}. Based on an example from the TikZ manual, page 441:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
    \usetikzlibrary{shapes.arrows}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={single arrow, draw=none, rotate=60}]
        \node [fill=red!50] {arrow 1};
        \node [fill=blue!50, single arrow head indent=1ex] at (1.5,0) {arrow 2};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

This gives:

enter image description here

edited Jun 05 '12 at 16:29

answered Jun 04 '12 at 16:53

Ingo

20,035

2

It is best to post a fully compilable example with a \documentclass (can use article, unless a reason to use something else), and include all the packages so that others can just cut and paste. – Peter Grill Jun 04 '12 at 17:39
Thanks, but you should not use the minimal class. See Why not use the minimal class, that was why I had suggested using the article class. – Peter Grill Jun 05 '12 at 15:28
It still gave the identical output, but I fixed it anyway. Thanks. – Ingo Jun 05 '12 at 16:29
1

Yeah in this case it does not matter, but better not to use minimal in general. – Peter Grill Jun 05 '12 at 16:37

Torbjørn T. · Answer 2 · 2020-04-24T14:17:51.677

12

Those are two quite different questions, answering the one in the title:

If you simply add a node along the line, it will be printed on top of the line (unless otherwise specified). You have to change the color though, as the color specification of the \draw command also applies to the node.

For non-horizontal arrows add sloped to the node options.

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\coordinate (a) at (0,0);
\coordinate (b) at (6,0);
\coordinate (c) at (45:6);

\draw[->, >=latex, blue!20!white, line width=15pt] (a) to node[black]{text} (b);
\draw[->, >=latex, blue!20!white, line width=15pt] (a) to node[black,sloped]{text} (c);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

edited Apr 24 '20 at 14:17

answered Jun 04 '12 at 16:53

Torbjørn T.

206,688

Great, thanks! I had to specify anchor=center for this to work – Neil G Oct 01 '12 at 00:21
Does this also work for arrows that are not horizontal? – fuenfundachtzig Apr 24 '20 at 13:42
@fuenfundachtzig Yes, the node placement along the path doesn't depend on the direction of the line. But to get the correction rotation you need to add the sloped option to the node. (i.e. node[black,sloped]{text}). – Torbjørn T. Apr 24 '20 at 13:50

Inserting text inside an arrow in Tikz

2 Answers2

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