How to put fancy axes around a picture with TikZ?

Question

I want to add axes around a picture with TikZ as shown in the following image. I think I can handle positioning the axes, but how can I set them to have this kind of look, rather than being just usual axes ?

Thank you for your advices

Answer 1

You could use pgfplots to draw the axes and include the image with \addplot graphics.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{units}
\pgfplotsset{compat = 1.18}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
            axis lines = left,
            axis line style = -,
            axis line shift = 2mm,
            every tick/.append style = {black, thin},
            tick align = outside,
            unit markings = parenthesis,
            xlabel = {$x$},
            x unit = {m},
            ylabel = {$y$},
            y unit = {m}
        ]
        \addplot graphics [
            xmin = 0,
            xmax = 4,
            ymin = -2,
            ymax = 2
        ]
            {example-image-a};
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here is a basic setup you can adjust to your needs.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\sffamily]
\fill (0,-2) rectangle (4,2); 
\begin{scope}[yshift=-2mm]
\draw (0,-2) --node[yshift=-9mm]{$\mathsf{x(m)}$} (4,-2);
\foreach \x in {0,...,4}{\draw (\x,-2)--(\x,-2.2) node[below]{\x};}
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[xshift=-2mm]
\draw (0,-2) --node[yshift=9mm, sloped]{$\mathsf{y(m)}$} (0,2);
\foreach \y in {-2,...,2}{\draw (0,\y)--(-.2,\y) node[left]{\y};}
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}