TikZ Grid Without Edges

Question

I have the following TikZ grid:

But I'd like to draw the grid without edges, or with half of the edges cells missing, so that it appears to be a small section of a larger, infinite grid. What's the best way to achieve this?

\documentclass[border=0.25cm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray] (0,0) grid (3.5,3.5);
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

BTW, maybe help lines instead of color=gray – Leo Liu Nov 25 '11 at 19:25 — Leo Liu, Nov 25 '11 at 19:25

score 30 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '11 at 18:40

If you make the coordinates not an exact multiple of the step size you can get this effect:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray] (.75,.75) grid (3.75,3.75);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

output of code

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 26 '11 at 05:37

15

If you care for something a bit fancier, you could also try that one:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray,path fading=south] (.99,.75) grid (3.5,1);
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray,path fading=north] (.99,3.5) grid (3.5,3.75);
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray,path fading=west] (.75,.99) grid (1,3.5);
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray,path fading=east] (3.5,.99) grid (3.75,3.5);
   \draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray] (1,1) grid (3.5,3.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

output of code

edited Nov 26 '11 at 05:37

Alan Munn

218,180

answered Nov 26 '11 at 01:55

Jean-Christophe Dubacq

891

Possible : \begin{tikzpicture}[styling/.style={step=0.5cm,color=gray,path fading=#1}] then styling=south etc. and styling=none for the last path. – Alain Matthes May 25 '12 at 11:18

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited May 25 '12 at 10:18

I needed the same thing, but had things in the cells of the grid, which I also wanted to fade out. This solution is perhaps less elegant than others, but permits this sort of fading.

It just puts fading rectangles over the edges so they fade out to white.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[step=0.5cm] (0.1,0.1) grid (3.9,3.9);
    % Some letters to demonstrate fading
    \node at (0.25,0.25) {F};
    \node at (0.75,0.75) {A};
    \node at (1.25,0.25) {D};
    \node at (1.75,0.75) {E};

    \begin{scope}[transparency group]
        % Left edge
        \fill[path fading=east, color=white] (0,0) rectangle (1,4);
        % Bottom edge
        \fill[path fading=north, color=white] (0,0) rectangle (4,1);
        % Right edge
        \fill[path fading=west, color=white] (3,0) rectangle (4,4);
        % Top edge
        \fill[path fading=south, color=white] (0,3) rectangle (4,4);
    \end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Oooo.... this is beautiful :-) – Richard May 25 '12 at 15:58 — Richard, May 25 '12 at 15:58

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 25 '11 at 18:42

You could draw some additional lines:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[step=0.5cm,color=gray] (0,0) grid (3.5,3.5);
\foreach \i in {0,0.5,...,3.5}
  {
  \draw[gray] (3.5,\i) -- (3.8,\i);
  \draw[gray] (0,\i) -- (-0.3,\i);
  \draw[gray] (\i,3.5) -- (\i,3.8);
  \draw[gray] (\i,0) -- (\i,-0.3);
  }
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 26 '11 at 06:09

4

With PSTricks,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pstricks,multido}

\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}(-4.5,-4.5)(4.5,4.5)
\multido{\ix=-4+1}{9}
{
    \psline(\ix,4.5)(\ix,-4.5)
    \psline(4.5,\ix)(-4.5,\ix)
}
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Nov 26 '11 at 06:09

kiss my armpit

36,086

TikZ Grid Without Edges

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