How can I embed an external image within a tikzpicture environment?

Question

I want to embed an image within a tikzpicture environment. I tried the following,

\begin{tikzpicture}[]
  \pgftext{\includegraphics[width=150pt]{pic1.png}} at (0pt,0pt);
  \pgftext{\includegraphics[width=150pt]{pic2.png}} at (100pt,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

but both pictures are placed at upper-left corner of image, at the same position. I tried including them inside nodes as well, to no avail.

What am I doing wrong?

Try \node (myfirstpic) at (0,0) {\includegraphics{pic1.png}}; — jub0bs, May 19 '13 at 15:02
@Jubobs - that worked! Thanks. Seems that in my earlier attempt I tried to nest \includegraphics inside \pgftext. — Rogach, May 19 '13 at 15:06
\pgftext is not a TikZ command. The \node thing from @Jubobs should work. \pgftext[at={\pgfpoint{0pt}{0pt}}]{…} and \pgftext[x=100pt, y=0pt]{…} are possible \pgftext solutions. (The at … stuff you wrote is just ignored by TikZ as usual.) — Qrrbrbirlbel, May 19 '13 at 15:07
Closely related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/9559/drawing-on-an-image-with-tikz — juliohm, May 19 '13 at 19:27
Related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2152/tikz-using-external-images-as-building-blocks — jub0bs, Aug 17 '13 at 12:29

jub0bs · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-17T11:23:04.200

193

The prefered way to embed external pictures in a tikzpicture environment is to insert an \includegraphics{...} inside a \node. See the code below for an example.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[inner sep=0pt] (russell) at (0,0)
    {\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{bertrand_russell.jpg}};
\node[inner sep=0pt] (whitehead) at (5,-6)
    {\includegraphics[width=.25\textwidth]{alfred_north_whitehead.jpg}};
\draw[<->,thick] (russell.south east) -- (whitehead.north west)
    node[midway,fill=white] {Principia Mathematica};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Links to the original pictures:

edited Aug 17 '13 at 11:23

answered Aug 17 '13 at 10:37

jub0bs

58,916

2

What's the use of the inner sep=0pt option? – nemarona Feb 07 '15 at 15:13
5

@nemarona Try to use inner sep=10pt (for example) and recompile. inner sep=0pt tells TikZ to make the node's bounding box as tight as possible around the image. – jub0bs Feb 07 '15 at 15:38
11

How do the image widths compare to the tikz coordinates? – Thomas Ahle Feb 17 '16 at 16:25
There is some form to use mid north west o mid south east?. Thanks – LuisPac Feb 22 '18 at 13:51
Re. @ThomasAhle it's the normal one, see context - Setting unit length in TikZ? - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange (default is 1 unit = 1cm) – user202729 Apr 21 '22 at 05:01
Does it need to be a jpg? – jjmerelo May 21 '23 at 11:48

How can I embed an external image within a tikzpicture environment?

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