工具与资源castel.dev
我用 Inkscape 为数学讲义绘制插图
I draw figures for my mathematical lecture notes using Inkscape
2019 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
作者 Gilles Castel 介绍自己如何用 Inkscape 为数学讲义（LaTeX 笔记）绘制插图：借助自定义快捷键、Inkscape 内置的 LaTeX 公式输入，以及导出为 PDF/SVG 后插入文档的流程，把画图时间压到几分钟。这是他此前那套 Vim + LaTeX 记笔记工作流的续篇，重点在具体操作技巧而非工具综述。
为什么经久不衰：它把"用通用矢量软件画数学图"落到可复制的快捷键和流程上，展示了效率可以练出来，同时也引发了关于 Ipe、Mathcha 等替代工具和"这到底要多快手"的长久讨论。
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怀疑作者的作图速度对普通熟练用户是否可复制。
我是偏符号/语言型思维的人，自知不擅长任何跟平面设计、画图、看图相关的事，但这篇文章让我意识到自己有多差。文中示例图里有些我根本不知道怎么画，另一些我能画，但估计每张至少得花一小时甚至更多——而且这不是因为我不熟工具：Inkscape 正是我画矢量图的首选，论文插图、海报、幻灯片都用它，练了很多小时。到底作者和我谁才是异类？大多数人真能在几分钟内做出那样的图吗？
Al-Khwarizmi查看英文原文
I am a person with a predominantly symbolic/linguistic way of thinking, and I'm aware that I tend to be bad at anything resembling graphic design, drawing, understanding of diagrams, etc... but this puts into perspective how much I really suck at that. Out of the example figures in this post, some of them I would outright not know how to draw. Others I would be able to draw, but I think each of them would take me at least about an hour, maybe more. And this is not out of lack of familiarity with the tool: Inkscape is my go-to tool for vector drawing and what I use most for scientific paper figures, presentation slides, posters, lecture slides, etc. so I have lots of hours of practice with it. Who is more of an outlier, the author or I? Is it really within the reach of most people to be able to whip up figures like that in a few minutes?
用 \def 宏而非编辑器片段同样能快速记笔记，但可读性差。
我一开始以为作者是在准备自己要讲的课的讲义，而不是在听课时记笔记——这两者完全不同，我怀疑除了图形只由少量反复出现的固定元素构成的情况，它未必比用平板手画更高效。我同意作者说用 LaTeX 记数学课笔记完全可行，不过我不用编辑器里的代码片段，而是大量用 \def：经验足够、知道何时该 \def 之后，我在很多课上比所有人手写都快，甚至比教授写得还快还清楚；也会用一组标准 \def（\beq、\eeq 之类）加快常规输入，好处是在任何编辑器里都能用。代价是别人看不懂我的 LaTeX。
cge查看英文原文
I initially started writing a response to this thinking the author was referring to preparing lecture notes for lectures they were giving, not taking notes at lectures they were attending. That is entirely different, and I do have to wonder whether it's actually more efficient than, say, using a tablet to draw them, except in cases where the figures involve only use of common, repeated motifs. I do agree with the author that taking lecture notes for math-heavy classes in LaTeX is quite possible, though I haven't done it since I was an undergraduate. While the author makes use of snippets in a particular text editor setup, I instead relied on extensive use of \def. With sufficient experience and intuition as to when to \def something, I could take notes in many classes faster than everyone writing by hand, and often faster and more clearly than the professor could write: I could insert a common but complicated expression with a few keystrokes, rather than writing it out or using something like ~ to refer to it. I would also use a standard set of \def's to make standard LaTeX faster to type: \beq and \eeq for \begin{equation} and \end{equation}, and so on. This also had the advantage of working in any text editor. The disadvantage over snippets (I'm not sure how developed they were at the time) was, of course, that my LaTeX was incomprehensible for anyone else reading it, and my style had to change significantly once I started collaborating on projects rather than just writing notes for myself. I've long used Inkscape for paper and prepared note figures, however, and I've found that many of my colleagues now do as well, after Adobe's transition to a subscription model. In doing so, I am very wary of the pdf+latex export: it doesn't seem as though it can reliably place text exactly, leaving the risk that it looks awkward or has text move when the font; it also makes figures that are not easily reusable in other places (eg, presentations, typesetters making HTML versions of papers, etc). Additionally, the pdf export itself doesn't seem to preserve editing very well. As such, I usually store parallel svg and pdf versions, in the interest of avoiding very non-standard LaTeX packages. However, if I recall correctly, there are packages that allow direct use of Inkscape SVGs in LaTeX.
推荐 Ipe：功能少但易用、原生支持 LaTeX，且易于用 Lua 扩展。
讨论了一圈数学作图的矢量软件替代品，居然没人提 Ipe，它在我这个领域是最流行的，原生支持 LaTeX 公式。它的功能确实不如 Inkscape 多，但已有功能都高度重视易用性，有时在程序里头脑风暴比在纸上还顺。用 Lua 写插件也很方便：我曾写过一个插件，通过调用自己写的 C++ 回溯程序判断图里是否有哈密顿回路，从而快速试验各种小图和改动。
procedurecall查看英文原文
With all the discussion here about alternative programs to make vector graphics for mathematical figures, I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned Ipe (https://ipe.otfried.org/), given it's far and away the most popular tool in my field (and has good native support for LaTeX expressions). It certainly doesn't have all the features that Inkscape supports (although it does have quite a lot of features), but the features it does have are implemented with a heavy emphasis on ease-of-use. It's sometimes easier to brainstorm within the program than on paper. It's also plenty easy to add useful plugins in Lua: At one point I coded a plugin to check if a diagram of a graph contained a Hamiltonian cycle (by calling an external C++ program I wrote that used simple backtracking). I was able to very quickly experiment with which of my small graphs and modifications to said graphs ended up having Hamiltonian cycles, and was able to narrow down some useful features to think about.
Inkscape 在快速绘制概念示意图上优于功能更强的 Illustrator。
Inkscape 很适合做技术插图，尤其是文中这类示意图。在我这个领域，纯概念性的图被叫作“cartoon”，以区别于基于观测数据的“figure”。我以前的导师有句话我很乐意借用：“示意图是科学传播的最高形式。”把概念提炼成极简的图示是一门被低估的艺术。Inkscape 非常适合画这类科学示意图；我也用 Illustrator 多年，它更强大，但在快速勾勒草图这件事上不如 Inkscape 顺手。
jofer查看英文原文
Inkscape is great for technical figures, especially cartoons like the examples shown here. At least in my field, purely conceptual futures are called "cartoons" to distinguish from "figures" which are based on observational data. A former advisor of mine had a quote that I'll happily steal here: "A cartoon is the highest form of scientific communication". Distilling a concept down to a very simple illustration is an underappreciated artform. Inkscape is really great for scientific cartoons. I've used illustrator for many years, as well, and it's more powerful, but lacks something for quick bare-bones sketches compared to inkscape. There are things that illustrator is far better suited for, but these sort of conceptual sketches are kind of a sweet spot for inkscape.
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