The basics

The underlying drawing model is that you make shapes, and add points to paths, and these are filled and/or stroked, using the current graphics state, which specifies colors, line thicknesses, and opacity. You can modify the current graphics state by transforming/rotating/scaling it, and setting style parameters, and so on. Subsequent graphics use the new state, but the graphics you've already drawn are unchanged.

You can specify points on the drawing surface using Point(x, y). The default origin is at the top left of the drawing area, but you can reposition it at any time. Many of the drawing functions have an action argument. This can be :none, :fill, :stroke, :fillstroke, :fillpreserve, :strokepreserve, :clip, or :path. The default is :none.

Y coordinates increase downwards, so Point(0, 100) is below Point(0, 0). This is the preferred coordinate system for computer graphics software, but mathematicians and scientists may well be used to the y-axis increasing upwards...

The main types you'll encounter in Luxor are:

Points and coordinates

The Point type holds two coordinates, x and y. For example:

julia> P = Point(12.0, 13.0)
Luxor.Point(12.0, 13.0)

julia> P.x
12.0

julia> P.y
13.0

Points are immutable, so you can't change P's x or y values directly. But it's easy to make new points based on existing ones.

Points can be added together:

julia> Q = Point(4, 5)
Luxor.Point(4.0, 5.0)

julia> P + Q
Luxor.Point(16.0, 18.0)

You can add or multiply Points and scalars:

julia> 10P
Luxor.Point(120.0, 130.0)

julia> P + 100
Luxor.Point(112.0, 113.0)

You can also make new points by mixing Points and tuples:

julia> P + (10, 0)
Luxor.Point(22.0, 13.0)

julia> Q * (0.5, 0.5)
Luxor.Point(2.0, 2.5)

You can use the letter O as a shortcut to refer to the current Origin, Point(0, 0).

rulers()
box.([O + (i, 0) for i in range(0, stop=200, length=5)], 20, 20, :stroke)

Angles are usually supplied in radians, measured starting at the positive x-axis turning towards the positive y-axis (which usually points 'down' the page or canvas, so 'clockwise'). (The main exception is for turtle graphics, which conventionally let you supply angles in degrees.)

Coordinates are interpreted as PostScript points, where a point is 1/72 of an inch.

Because Julia allows you to combine numbers and variables directly, you can supply units with dimensions and have them converted to points (assuming the current scale is 1:1):

• inch (in is unavailable, being used by for syntax)
• cm (centimeters)
• mm (millimeters)

For example:

rect(Point(20mm, 2cm), 5inch, (22/7)inch, :fill)

Drawings

Drawings and files

To create a drawing, and optionally specify the filename, type, and dimensions, use the Drawing constructor function.

Drawing(width=600, height=600, file="luxor-drawing.png")

Drawing()

Drawing(400, 300)

Drawing(400, 300, "my-drawing.pdf")

Drawing(1200, 800, "my-drawing.svg")

Drawing(width, height, surfacetype | filename)

Drawing(1200, 1200/Base.Mathconstants.golden, "my-drawing.eps")

Drawing("A4", "my-drawing.pdf")

Drawing("A4landscape")

Drawing(width, height, :image)

paper_sizes

"A0"      => (2384, 3370),
"A1"      => (1684, 2384),
"A2"      => (1191, 1684),
"A3"      => (842, 1191),
"A4"      => (595, 842),
"A5"      => (420, 595),
"A6"      => (298, 420),
"A"       => (612, 792),
"Letter"  => (612, 792),
"Legal"   => (612, 1008),
"Ledger"  => (792, 1224),
"B"       => (612, 1008),
"C"       => (1584, 1224),
"D"       => (2448, 1584),
"E"       => (3168, 2448))

To finish a drawing and close the file, use finish(), and, to launch an external application to view it, use preview().

If you're using a notebook environment, such as Jupyter (IJulia) or Pluto, preview() tries to display PNG and SVG files in the next notebook cell.

If you're using Juno or VS Code, then PNG and SVG files should appear in the Plots pane.

finish()

preview()

Quick drawings with macros

The @draw, @svg, @png, and @pdf macros are designed to let you quickly create graphics without having to provide the usual boiler-plate functions. For example, the Julia code:

@svg circle(O, 20, :stroke) 50 50

expands to

Drawing(50, 50, "luxor-drawing-(timestamp).svg")
origin()
background("white")
sethue("black")
circle(O, 20, :stroke)
finish()
preview()

They're short-cuts - designed to save typing. You can omit the width and height (defaulting to 600 by 600, except for @imagematrix), and you don't have to specify a filename (you'll get time-stamped files in the current working directory). For multiple lines, use either:

@svg begin
    setline(10)
    sethue("purple")
    circle(O, 20, :fill)
end

or (less nicely):

@svg (setline(10);
      sethue("purple");
      circle(O, 20, :fill)
     )

The @draw macro creates an in-memory drawing. You should see it displayed if you're working in a capable environment (Juno, VSCode, Jupyter, Pluto).

@svg drawing-instructions [width] [height] [filename]

@svg circle(O, 20, :fill)

@svg circle(O, 20, :fill) 400

@svg circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200

@svg circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/test"

@svg circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/test.svg"

@svg begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end

@svg begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end 1200 1200

@png drawing-instructions [width] [height] [filename]

@png circle(O, 20, :fill)

@png circle(O, 20, :fill) 400

@png circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200

@png circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/round"

@png circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/round.png"

@png begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end


@png begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end 1200 1200

@pdf drawing-instructions [width] [height] [filename]

@pdf circle(O, 20, :fill)

@pdf circle(O, 20, :fill) 400

@pdf circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200

@pdf circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/A0-version"

@pdf circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200 "/tmp/A0-version.pdf"

@pdf begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end

@pdf begin
        setline(10)
        sethue("purple")
        circle(O, 20, :fill)
     end 1200 1200

@draw drawing-instructions [width] [height]

@draw circle(O, 20, :fill)

@draw circle(O, 20, :fill) 400

@draw circle(O, 20, :fill) 400 1200


@draw begin
         setline(10)
         sethue("purple")
         circle(O, 20, :fill)
      end


@draw begin
         setline(10)
         sethue("purple")
         circle(O, 20, :fill)
      end 1200 1200

Create a drawing and return a matrix of the image.

m = @imagematrix begin
        sethue("red")
        box(O, 20, 20, :fill)
    end 60 60

julia>  m[1220:1224] |> show
    ARGB32[ARGB32(0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8),
           ARGB32(1.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,1.0N0f8),
           ARGB32(1.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,1.0N0f8),
           ARGB32(1.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,1.0N0f8),
           ARGB32(1.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,0.0N0f8,1.0N0f8)]

julia> getfield.(m[1220:1224], :color)
 5-element Array{UInt32,1}:
 0x00000000
 0xffff0000
 0xffff0000
 0xffff0000
 0xffff0000

If you don't specify a size, the defaults are 600 by 600. If you don't specify a file name, files created with the macros are placed in your current working directory as luxor-drawing- followed by a time stamp. You don't have to specify the suffix:

@svg juliacircles(150) 400 400 "test" # saves in "test.svg"

If you want to create drawings with transparent backgrounds, or located other than in the center, use the longer form rather than the macros:

Drawing()
background(1, 1, 1, 0)
origin()
setline(30)
# current opacity is now 0.0, so use setcolor() rather than sethue()
# or use setopacity()
setcolor("green")
box(BoundingBox() - 50, :stroke)
finish()
preview()

Drawings in memory

You can choose to store the drawing in memory. The advantage is that in-memory drawings are quicker, and can be passed as Julia data. It's useful in some environments to not have to worry about writing files. This syntax for the Drawing() function:

Drawing(width, height, surfacetype, [filename])

lets you supply surfacetype as a symbol (:svg or :png). This creates a new drawing of the given surface type and stores the image only in memory if no filename is supplied. The @draw macro creates PNG files in memory.

You can specify :image as the surface type. This allows you to copy the current drawing into a 2D matrix (using image_as_matrix()). See the Images chapter for more information.

Interactive graphics with IJulia and Interact

Currently, you should use an in-memory SVG drawing to display graphics if you're using Interact.jl. This example provides an HSB color widget.

using Interact, Colors, Luxor
@manipulate for h in 0:360, s in 0:0.01:1, b in 0:0.01:1
    d = Drawing(300, 300, :svg)
    sethue(Colors.HSB(h, s, b))
    origin()
    circle(O, 100, :fill)  
    circle(polar(110, deg2rad(h)), 10, :fill)
    sethue("black")
    label(string(h, "°"), deg2rad(h), polar(120, deg2rad(h)))
        finish()
    d
end

Drawing as image matrix

You can specify an :image type of picture when you create a drawing using Drawing() or with the @imagematrix macro. This stores the vector graphics on the drawing in memory, and at any time you can copy the data in the form of a matrix, using the image_as_matrix() function.

image_as_matrix() returns an Array{ARGB32, 2}:, an array of numbers that encode the alpha, Red, Green, and Blue values of each pixel into a single number.

The following example draws a character as usual, then copies the data into a matrix called mat. The second drawing reads the values in from the matrix and draws them as square tiles if the color value is above (lighter than) black.

Drawing(40, 40, :image)
origin()
background("black")
sethue("white")
fontsize(38)
fontface("Georgia")
text("42", halign=:center, valign=:middle)

mat = image_as_matrix()

finish()

# second drawing

Drawing(400, 400, "assets/figures/image-drawings.svg")
background("darkorange")
origin()
tiles = Tiler(400, 400, size(mat)...)
sethue("white")
for (pos, n) in tiles
    if mat[n].color > 0xff000000
        randomhue()
        box(pos, tiles.tilewidth - 1, tiles.tileheight - 1, :fill)
    end
end

If you're working with Images.jl, you will probably want to transpose the array:

using Luxor, Images

# in Luxor

Drawing(50, 50, :image)
origin()
background(randomhue()...)
sethue("white")
fontsize(40)
fontface("Georgia")
text("42", halign=:center, valign=:middle)
mat = image_as_matrix()
finish()

# in Images

img = Gray.(permutedims(mat, (2, 1)))
display(imresize(img, 150, 150))

The drawing surface

The origin (0/0) starts off at the top left: the x axis runs left to right across the page, and the y axis runs top to bottom down the page.

The origin() function moves the 0/0 point to the center of the drawing. It's often convenient to do this at the beginning of a program.

You can use functions like scale(), rotate(), and translate() to change the coordinate system.

background() fills the drawing with a color, covering any previous contents. By default, PDF drawings have a white background, whereas PNG drawings have no background so that the background appears transparent in other applications. If there is a current clipping region, background() fills just that region. In the next example, the first background() fills the entire drawing with magenta, but the calls in the loop fill only the active clipping region, a table cell defined by the Table iterator:

background("magenta")
origin()
table = Table(5, 5, 100, 50)
for (pos, n) in table
    box(pos,
        table.colwidths[table.currentcol],
        table.rowheights[table.currentrow],
        :clip)
    background(randomhue()...)
    clipreset()
end

The rulers() function draws a couple of rulers to indicate the position and orientation of the current axes.

background("gray80")
origin()
rulers()

background(color)

background("antiquewhite")
background("ivory")

background(RGB(0, 0, 0))
background(Luv(20, -20, 30))

background(RGBA(0, 0, 0, 0))

background(0, 0, 0, 0)

rulers()

origin()

origin(pt:Point)

Save and restore

gsave() saves a copy of the current graphics settings (current axis rotation, position, scale, line and text settings, color, and so on). When the next grestore() is called, all changes you've made to the graphics settings will be discarded, and the previous settings are restored, so things return to how they were when you last used gsave(). gsave() and grestore() should always be balanced in pairs.

The @layer macro is a synonym for a gsave()...grestore() pair.

@svg begin
    circle(O, 100, :stroke)
    @layer (sethue("red"); rule(O); rule(O, π/2))
    circle(O, 200, :stroke)
end

or

@svg begin
    circle(O, 100, :stroke)
    @layer begin
        sethue("red")
        rule(O)
        rule(O, pi/2)
    end
    circle(O, 200, :stroke)
end

gsave()

grestore()