How to draw an ellipse?

Question

As I know, I can draw a circle using:

\draw (1,0) circle (2)

I try this kind of method to draw a \draw ellipse, failed. Would you tell me how to draw a ellipse? What's wrong with the code below?

The code is:

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{verbatim}
\begin{document}

% Define the rings. Store them in macros to make things
% more flexible.
 \def\boundellipse {(0,0) ellipse (10,5)}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    % Then we draw the rings
\draw \boundellipse;

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

score 186 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 27 '17 at 10:03

186

enter image description here

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\tikz \draw (0,0) ellipse (2cm and 1cm);


or

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) ellipse (2cm and 1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

EDIT:

\documentclass[border=3pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\def\myellipse{(0,0) ellipse (2cm and 1cm)}


\begin{document}
\tikz \draw \myellipse ;


or

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw \myellipse;
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

edited Aug 27 '17 at 10:03

Bobyandbob

4,899

answered Jul 28 '12 at 12:35

kiss my armpit

36,086

Yes, it did work. Thanks, however if I draw a circle like this way: \def\boundellipse {(0,0) circle(2)} then draw , it can work, why can not ellipse? – sweetyBaby Jul 28 '12 at 12:40
Is there any way to assign a name to an ellipse drawn this way? I need to store the ellipse in a "variable" (name) and use the name to later align other elements... – Antonio Sesto May 25 '23 at 06:15

score 31 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 28 '12 at 20:47

31

The pgfmanual gives \draw (a,b) circle [x radius=1cm, y radius=2cm];

With a macro

\newcommand{\boundellipse}[3]% center, x rad, y rad
{(#1) ellipse [x radius=#2,y radius=#3]
}

edited Jul 28 '12 at 20:47

Paul Gaborit

70,770
10
176
283

answered Jul 28 '12 at 15:44

Alain Matthes

95,075

4

+1. A pgfmanual extract: "ellipse has exactly the same effect as circle. The older syntax for this command is ellipse ( x radius and y radius ). As for the circle command, this syntax is not as good as the standard syntax." – Paul Gaborit Jul 28 '12 at 20:46

score 21 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '12 at 12:48

The notion is xdim and ydim, you are using xdim, ydim:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\newcommand{\boundellipse}[3]% center, xdim, ydim
{(#1) ellipse (#2 and #3)
}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw \boundellipse{0,0}{10}{5};
\draw \boundellipse{4,1}{-2}{4};
\draw \boundellipse{-2,4}{1}{3};

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

kiss my armpit · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-30T00:07:26.587

7

PSTricks' ellipse syntax might be closer to your requirement. Here it is \psellipse(<centerX, centerY>)(<semi-major-length, semi-minor-length>).

enter image description here

\documentclass[pstricks,border=12pt]{standalone}

\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid=true](8,6)
    \psellipse[linecolor=red](4,3)(4,3)
    \pscircle[linecolor=blue](4,3){2}
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}

edited Aug 30 '13 at 00:07

answered Jul 28 '12 at 17:06

kiss my armpit

36,086

Leox · Answer 5 · 2015-10-24T17:40:32.627

5

\documentclass{minimal}
    \usepackage{tikz}
        \begin{document} 
    \begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=2]
     \draw (1,0) circle (2);
     \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{document}

edited Oct 24 '15 at 17:40

answered Oct 24 '15 at 17:11

Leox

215

1

by far the simplest and best answer. – abcd Aug 24 '17 at 00:37
3

Why use scale if there's an ellipse function? – Yan King Yin Nov 26 '17 at 14:14
why not?................ – Leox Nov 26 '17 at 18:28
8

@Leox Because this is a bad way of drawing an ellipse that would scale everything else in the drawing. – hpekristiansen Sep 19 '21 at 16:31
Throw it inside a scope and it will only scale the ellipse. Still wouldn't do it this way, but wouldn't be hard to resolve the issue hperkristiansen points out. – kholli Feb 07 '24 at 22:24

How to draw an ellipse?

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