Size of TikZ ellipse node

Question

When I set the minimum size of an ellipse in a tikzpicture environment, it expands into a circle if the inner content does not grow as large as the ellipse shape itself.

Is there any way around it?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}
\tikzstyle{every node}=[draw, ellipse, minimum size=100pt,
    align=center]
\node (a) {Alpha};
\node[left=150pt, below=30pt] (b) at (a) {Beta};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

It seems to me that, without something as wide as the ellipse length, TikZ is not able to define the width and height of the ellipse, but how can I set these variables?

The minimum size style simply sets minimum width and minimum height (to the same provided value). If the contents are neither higher nor wider than those values the shape will be a circle. — Qrrbrbirlbel, Mar 21 '13 at 02:54
Very related: How to change the size of nodes? also take a look at Should \tikzset or \tikzstyle be used to define TikZ styles? Although this is only a MWE, you may also be interested in the positioning library. — Qrrbrbirlbel, Mar 21 '13 at 03:41

score 25 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

25

You can set minimum height=<length>, or minimum width=<length> as shown in MWE:

enter image description here

Notes:

As Qrrbrbirlbel commented, setting minimum size is setting both the values of minimum width and minimum height and hence you end up with a circle.
If you want to specify both the minimum height= and minimum width= parameters you need to set them to different values, otherwise you will again end up with a circle.

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}
\tikzstyle{every node}=[ultra thick, draw=blue, ellipse, minimum width=100pt,
    align=center]
\node (a) {Alpha};
\node[left=150pt, below=30pt] (b) at (a) {Beta};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

Community

1

answered Mar 21 '13 at 02:55

Peter Grill

223,288

+1 And that's an else. That's really something else (: Didn't know this width argument. Thanks! – Rubens Mar 21 '13 at 02:57
1

@Rubens You can also set the size of the TeX box (that is used inside the node) with text width, text height and text depth. Those are explicitly not minimum values and have very different outputs than the minimum values. They also need the align=center option to center the content. – Qrrbrbirlbel Mar 21 '13 at 03:04
@Qrrbrbirlbel: Hmmm, Good point. I think that that is a more correct solution. You want to post an answer? – Peter Grill Mar 21 '13 at 03:05
@Qrrbrbirlbel: Yeah, sloppy verbiage. Have clarified, I think? – Peter Grill Mar 21 '13 at 03:09

Size of TikZ ellipse node

1 Answers1

Notes:

Code:

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