Change symbol drawn in tikz by a character in the pdf text

Question

I was drawing my set of dice, like the following code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage   {ifthen}
\usepackage   {tikz}
\tikzset%
{%
  pics/die/.style={%
    code={%
      \begin{scope}[x=1ex,y=1ex]
      \draw[line width=0.15ex,rounded corners=0.3ex] (-0.75,-0.75) rectangle (0.75,0.75);
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 3}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom right dot
      }{}% do nothing
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 1}
      {%
        \fill ( 0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top right dot
        \fill (-0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom left dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 6}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center right dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 1 \OR #1 = 3 \OR #1 = 5}{\fill (0,0) circle (0.15);}{} % center dot
      \end{scope}
      }}
}
\begin{document}
\huge
\foreach\i in {1,...,6}{\tikz \pic[red] {die={\i}};,}
Snake Eyes: \tikz\pic {die={1}}; \tikz\pic {die={1}};
Fever Five: \tikz\pic {die={4}}; \tikz\pic {die={1}};
\end{document}

My question is whether it would be possible to assign a character to each die so that you could select it as text in the pdf. I want, for example, to select the 'Fever Five: [die 4] [die 1]' line in the pdf, and copy-paste in another document as 'Fever Five: 4 1'.

I know that there are unicode characters for this purpose, and probably many packages that can do the same, but I want to do it this way (if possible).

You might be interested in the accsup package. See e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/41688/82917 — campa, Jul 10 '21 at 10:10
@campa, it looks promising, but if I write \BeginAccSupp{ActualText={1}} \tikz \pic {die={1}}; \EndAccSupp{} I can't select the die in the generated pdf. It works with \BeginAccSupp{ActualText={1}}2\EndAccSupp{} though. It probably accepts only text? — Juan Castaño, Jul 10 '21 at 10:40

CarLaTeX · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-21T14:44:45.930

What about using a trick?

Write transparent but copiable text behind your dice.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifthen}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{transparent}
\tikzset%
{%
  pics/die/.style={%
    code={%
      \begin{scope}[x=1ex,y=1ex]
      \draw[line width=0.15ex,rounded corners=0.3ex] (-0.75,-0.75) rectangle (0.75,0.75);
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 3}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom right dot
      }{}% do nothing
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 1}
      {%
        \fill ( 0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top right dot
        \fill (-0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom left dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 6}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center right dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 1 \OR #1 = 3 \OR #1 = 5}{\fill (0,0) circle (0.15);}{} % center dot
      \end{scope}
      }}
}
\newlength{\lungnum}
\newcommand{\dado}[2][black]{\settowidth{\lungnum}{#2}\texttransparent{0}{#2}\hspace{-\lungnum}\tikz{\pic[#1] {die={#2}};}}
\begin{document}
\huge
\foreach\i in {1,...,6}{\dado[red]{\i},}
Snake Eyes: \dado{1} \dado{1}
Fever Five: \dado{4} \dado{1}
\end{document}

Copy-pasting the resulting pdf:

You get:

1 2 3 4 5 6
Snake Eyes: 1 1
Fever Five: 4 1

As Juan suggested, it works also using hidden nodes with transparent text (opacity=0). In this case, you don't even have to load transparent package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifthen}
\usepackage{tikz}
\tikzset%
{%
  pics/die/.style={%
    code={%
      \begin{scope}[x=1ex,y=1ex]
      \draw[line width=0.15ex,rounded corners=0.3ex] (-0.75,-0.75) rectangle (0.75,0.75);
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 3}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom right dot
      }{}% do nothing
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 1}
      {%
        \fill ( 0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top right dot
        \fill (-0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom left dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 6}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center right dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 1 \OR #1 = 3 \OR #1 = 5}{\fill (0,0) circle (0.15);}{} % center dot
      \end{scope}
      }}
}
\newlength{\lungnum}
\newcommand{\dado}[2][black]{\tikz{\node[opacity=0,inner sep=0cm]{#2};\pic[#1] {die={#2}};}}
\begin{document}
\huge
\foreach\i in {1,...,6}{\dado[red]{\i},}
Snake Eyes: \dado{1} \dado{1}
Fever Five: \dado{4} \dado{1}
\end{document}

Obviously, you can insert the node with opacity=0 directly in your pic and don't change anything of the rest of your code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage   {ifthen}
\usepackage   {tikz}
\tikzset%
{%
  pics/die/.style={%
    code={%
      \begin{scope}[x=1ex,y=1ex]
      \node[opacity=0,inner sep=0cm]{#1};
      \draw[line width=0.15ex,rounded corners=0.3ex] (-0.75,-0.75) rectangle (0.75,0.75);
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 3}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom right dot
      }{}% do nothing
      \ifthenelse{#1 > 1}
      {%
        \fill ( 0.4, 0.4) circle (0.15); % top right dot
        \fill (-0.4,-0.4) circle (0.15); % bottom left dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 6}
      {%
        \fill (-0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center left dot
        \fill ( 0.4,0) circle (0.15);    % center right dot
      }{}
      \ifthenelse{#1 = 1 \OR #1 = 3 \OR #1 = 5}{\fill (0,0) circle (0.15);}{} % center dot
      \end{scope}
      }}
}
\begin{document}
\huge
\foreach\i in {1,...,6}{\tikz \pic[red] {die={\i}};,}
Snake Eyes: \tikz\pic {die={1}}; \tikz\pic {die={1}};
Fever Five: \tikz\pic {die={4}}; \tikz\pic {die={1}};
\end{document}

I like it!! It's very simple. I'll try to include the transparent numbers in the pics, if possible. Then it won't be necessary to play with the lengths. Thanks!! — Juan Castaño, Nov 21 '21 at 08:50
@JuanCastaño Obviously, you can put the fake node directly in the pic and don't change anything of the rest of your code, see my edit (I think you already did it but I added it to the answer for compleness). — CarLaTeX, Nov 21 '21 at 14:47

Change symbol drawn in tikz by a character in the pdf text

1 Answers1