TikZ: shaded cube

10 August 2008 by Stefan Kottwitz

With just a few lines of code you can create a drawing of a cube with a 3D impression, though if it’s not really perspective or raytraced:

\begin{tikzpicture}[on grid]
  \shade[yslant=-0.5,right color=gray!10, left color=black!50]
    (0,0) rectangle +(3,3);
  \draw[yslant=-0.5] (0,0) grid (3,3);
  \shade[yslant=0.5,right color=gray!70,left color=gray!10]
    (3,-3) rectangle +(3,3);
  \draw[yslant=0.5] (3,-3) grid (6,0);
  \shade[yslant=0.5,xslant=-1,bottom color=gray!10,
    top color=black!80] (6,3) rectangle +(-3,-3);
  \draw[yslant=0.5,xslant=-1] (3,0) grid (6,3);
\end{tikzpicture}

This example uses the positioning tikz library.

Output screenshot:

By adding some slanted numbers we will get a Sudoku 3D cube:

TeX source code and pdf output are provided.

I’ve programmed it to answer a question posted on matheplanet.de. At first I wanted to use the matrix tikz library but it seemed to me that matrices of nodes cannot be slanted, at least I didn’t find a way.

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4 responses about “TikZ: shaded cube”

Kjell Magne Fauske said:
11 August 2008 at 9:18 AM
Nice cube! Can I add it to the TikZ and PGF gallery?
Stefan Kottwitz said:
11 August 2008 at 3:09 PM
Of course, I’d be glad to contribute to your excellent gallery.
Kjell Magne Fauske said:
11 August 2008 at 7:54 PM
Thank you Stefan. Your example is now available at http://www.fauskes.net/pgftikzexamples/sudoku-3d-cube/
Tomek said:
13 August 2008 at 3:09 PM
Nice example, Stefan! It’s really amazing how you can get such fine graphics in TikZ with just a few lines of code. Now, the real challenge would be to solve this Sudoku puzzle in TikZ