ZikT 0.1.3

Do I need to know LaTeX to use ZikT?

Well, some very basic knowledge to embed the TikZ code and to compile the document is needed. But―of cause―you will need to know LaTeX if you want to write documents around your charts. :)

Do I need to know TikZ/PGF to use ZikT?

No. But if you do, you will have more options to style your charts and you will be able to manipulate and extend ZikTs output manually.

Can I use ZikT without programming Python?

I have written a simple command line front end for ZikT. It enables you to read in a CSV file and to print out the charts TikZ code to stdout. This front end script is zikt.py which can be found within the zikt package.

Is there any further documentation?

I’m working on a LaTeX based documentation but it is in an even earlier state than ZikT itself (surprise!). It is currently not available with the package. If you are intrested in this, let me know and maybe I will hurry up a little with the documentation.

Short example for programmatic usage?

Okay.

from zikt.tables import FloatTable
from zikt.barchart import BarChart

data = [
        ['A','B','C'],
        [2,12,-3]
        ]

table = FloatTable(data)

chart = BarChart()

chartCode = chart.render(table)

print "\\begin{tikzpicture}"
print chartCode
print "\\end{tikzpicture}"

Pipe the output of this program into a file in a an empty directory. On Linux it may

./upper_script.py > diagram.tex

The TikZ output of ZikT depends on several color and TikZ definitions that are located in zikt.sty, delivered with the package in the latex sub package. As a convenience function, the zikt script can print it to stdout. So, the easiest option is to use a zikt.sty copy for each LaTeX document containing ZikT charts. Create that zikt.sty in your working directory. On Linux it may look like this:

zikt --printsty > zikt.sty

Last but not least you need the surrounding document. Create mydoc.tex with something like following content:

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{zikt}
\begin{document}
 \input{diagram}
\end{document}

Compile that file with a compatible LaTeX compiler. I would use lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode mydoc.tex. You should have a very senseless mydoc.pdf then where you can see a very basic ZikT bar chart.