tufte-book: tikz references in caption

Question

Using the article documentclass, the following code works as expected.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.13}
\usepgfplotslibrary{external}
% fix problems when tikzexternal is used
\newcommand{\tikzcaption}[1]{\protect\tikzset{external/export next=false}#1}
\newcommand{\tikzref}[1]{\tikzcaption{\ref{#1}}}

\tikzset{pointille/.style={dash pattern = on 2pt off 2pt on 6pt off 2pt}}
\tikzset{points/.style={dash pattern = on 1pt off 1pt}}
\tikzset{tirets/.style={dash pattern = on 5pt off 5pt}}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\captionsetup{width=9.5cm}
\pgfplotsset{every axis plot post/.append style={mark=none,line width=1.5pt}}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot[tirets,color=blue]{2*x};\label{p4}
\addplot[pointille,color=green]{0.5*x*x};\label{p5}
\addplot[points,color=red]{-0.125*x*x*x};\label{p6}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{This is a plot about colored curves: $f(x)=2 x$ (\tikzref{p4}),  $f(x)=0.5 x^2$ (\tikzref{p5}), and $f(x)=-0.125 x^3$ (\tikzref{p6})}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

However, when using \documentclass{tufte-book} the references wont work:

How can I fix this?

Info: Example code probably taken originally from here http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/20926/tikz-legend-in-caption (without the external parts) — Dr. Manuel Kuehner, Feb 09 '16 at 21:37
For some reasons, with tufte-book the labels defined inside the plot disappear, but the last which however is written in a wrong way. — egreg, Feb 09 '16 at 23:05

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 09 '16 at 23:29

The problem is that pgfplots does some juggling with \label, under the assumption that it means the same as in the LaTeX kernel, which unfortunately is false with tufte-book.

\documentclass{tufte-book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

% patch pgfplots so that \label does the original job
% tufte-book saves the original meaning of \label in
% \@tufte@orig@label
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\pgfplots@environment@opt}{\label}{\@tufte@orig@label}{}{}
\makeatother

\pgfplotsset{compat=1.13}
\usepgfplotslibrary{external}
% fix problems when tikzexternal is used
\DeclareRobustCommand{\tikzcaption}[1]{\tikzset{external/export next=false}#1}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\tikzref}[1]{\tikzcaption{\ref{#1}}}

\tikzset{pointille/.style={dash pattern = on 2pt off 2pt on 6pt off 2pt}}
\tikzset{points/.style={dash pattern = on 1pt off 1pt}}
\tikzset{tirets/.style={dash pattern = on 5pt off 5pt}}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\pgfplotsset{every axis plot post/.append style={mark=none,line width=1.5pt}}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot[tirets,color=blue]{2*x};\label{p4}
\addplot[pointille,color=green]{0.5*x*x};\label{p5}
\addplot[points,color=red]{-0.125*x*x*x};\label{p6}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\caption{This is a plot about colored curves: $f(x)=2 x$ (\tikzref{p4}), 
  $f(x)=0.5 x^2$ (\tikzref{p5}), and $f(x)=-0.125 x^3$ (\tikzref{p6})}

\end{figure}
\end{document}

I also made \tikzref and \tikzcaption robust.

Great! Any idea why it worked partly in my example? – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Feb 10 '16 at 06:54 — Dr. Manuel Kuehner, Feb 10 '16 at 06:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

I think you based your code on the question here. I tried to make a cleaner MWE using code from the pgfplots manual.

As you can see, I don't have a solution but I got a little further. 2 out of 3 \ref commands worked as expected. In this case it didn't work if there was a line and marks.

Maybe this helps others to look deeper into the issue.

\documentclass{tufte-book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.3}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Without a \texttt{figure} Environment}

% Taken from the pgfplots manuel section 4.9.6 (Legends with \label and \ref)

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
        \addplot+[only marks,
            samples=15,
            error bars/y dir=both,
            error bars/y fixed=2.5]
            {3*x+2.5*rand};
        \label{pgfplots:label1}
        \addplot+[mark=none] {3*x};
        \label{pgfplots:label2}
        \addplot {4*cos(deg(x))};
        \label{pgfplots:label3}
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Label 1: \ref{pgfplots:label1}; Label 2: \ref{pgfplots:label2}; Label 3: \ref{pgfplots:label3}

\chapter{With a \texttt{figure} Environment}

% Taken from the pgfplots manuel section 4.9.6 (Legends with \label and \ref)

\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
        \addplot+[only marks,
            samples=15,
            error bars/y dir=both,
            error bars/y fixed=2.5]
            {3*x+2.5*rand};
        \label{pgfplots:label1}
        \addplot+[mark=none] {3*x};
        \label{pgfplots:label2}
        \addplot {4*cos(deg(x))};
        \label{pgfplots:label3}
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
% Caption
\caption{Label 1: \ref{pgfplots:label1}; Label 2: \ref{pgfplots:label2}; Label 3: \ref{pgfplots:label3}}
\end{figure}

Label 1: \ref{pgfplots:label1}; Label 2: \ref{pgfplots:label2}; Label 3: \ref{pgfplots:label3}

\end{document}

There may be connections with the external library. It's a fact that also in the OP's example the last \label is recorded wrongly in the .aux file. I bet 1 cent that if you add the external library, you'll lose the labels. — egreg, Feb 10 '16 at 09:15

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '18 at 08:00

I couldn't get the above solutions to work. I'm not exactly sure why, but I came up with a poor man's solution to the above problem, which maybe also helps somebody.

I have only very simple plots and therefore did finally go with colored em-dashes in the caption text.

\caption{Ref to a plot \textcolor{blue}{---}}

It's not quite the same, but for simple situations, it may be a way to go.

tufte-book: tikz references in caption

3 Answers3