pandoc-dot2tex-filter

This is a pandoc filter that converts dot code into latex-friendly PGF/TikZ. It is basically just a wrapper for dot2tex .

Because of the nature of the PGF/TikZ format, this filter is only suitable for exporting to latex and pdf. Rendering to PGF/TikZ gives a better-looking result in pdfs than using a raster image. If you want to convert a document containing dot graphs to different formats, check out the graphviz filter from the pandocfilters package, which renders the graphs to pngs end embeds them in the output document.

Requirements

Run:

• pip install pandocfilters to install the Python pandocfilters library
• apt-get install dot2tex

Usage

Running from command line

$> pandoc source.md --filter ./path/to/dot2tex-filter.py -H ./path/to/tikz-preamble.latex -t output.pdf

Important! By default, pandoc's latex template does not include the tikz package in the document preamble. To change that, either:

• edit the default template, so it contains this code:

  \usepackage{tikz}
  \usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows}
  

• tell pandoc to embed the tikz-preamble.latex (included in this repository) in the document's preamble, by adding -H ./path/to/tikz-preamble.latex to the pandoc command.

Document examples

In following examples, I'll use Markdown as the source language.

Basic usage

To create a basic graph, create a fenced code block with a dot class, like so:

```dot
graph graphname{
	a -- b -- c
	b -- d
}
```

The result will be:

Adding captions

If you want to add a caption, you should use a slightly different syntax:

```{.dot caption="This is a graph"}
graph graphname{
	a -- b -- c
	b -- c
}
```

The value of the caption can contain any tex tokens and it will be properly rendered.

```{.dot caption="foo bar \alpha \beta"}
graph graphname{
	a -- b -- c
	b -- c
}
```

Referencing the graph

The graph will be rendered as a figure. If you want to reference the figure somewhere in your document, you need to give the graph a label, like so:

```{.dot caption="My graph" label="my_graph"}
graph graphname{
	a -- b -- c
	b -- c
}
```

To reference the graph, use

\ref{my_graph}

directly in paragraph test - it will be properly interpreted by pandoc and rendered as expected.

Using math mode within the graph

You can use full math mode inside a node's label. See example:

```dot
graph graphname{
	a [texlbl="$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1} e^{2 \pi i k/n}$"];
	b [texlbl="$e^{\frac{(i \pm j \pm k)}{\sqrt 3}\pi} + 1$"];
	a -- b
}
```

Scaling the graph

If the graph does not fit in your page, use the scale attribute:

```{.dot scale="0.5"}
graphname tall{
	a -- b -- c -- d -- e -- f
}
```

It will make the distance between the nodes shorter, but it won't scale the label text.

More examples

If you want to learn more about dot2tex-specific graph attributes, check out this article