Next: Internal options, Previous: TikZ/PGF options, Up: Options

##### 3.1.5.3 `TikZ/PGF` user-defined styles

`TikZ/PGF` allows named styles defined by the user, for example

      \tikzstyle{mypolygonstyle} = [fill=blue!20,fill opacity=0.8]
      \tikzstyle{mylinestyle} = [red!20,dashed]

Since `sketch` has no information on the contents of such styles, it omits them entirely from lines, polygons, and their edges during option splitting. For example,

      polygon[style=mypolygonstyle,style=thick](0,0,1)(1,0,0)(0,1,0)
      line[style=mylinestyle](-1,-1,-1)(2,2,2)

produces the `TikZ` output

      \draw(-1,-1)--(.333,.333);
      \filldraw[thick,fill=white](0,0)--(1,0)--(0,1)--cycle;
      \draw(.333,.333)--(2,2);

Note that the user-defined styles are not present. Sketch also issues warnings:

      warning, unknown polygon option style=mypolygonstyle will be ignored
      warning, unknown line option style=mylinestyle will be ignored

The remedy is to state explicitly whether a user-defined style should be attched to polygons or lines in the `TikZ` output using pseudo-options `fill style` and `line style`,

      polygon[fill style=mypolygonstyle,style=thick](0,0,1)(1,0,0)(0,1,0)
      line[line style=mylinestyle](-1,-1,-1)(2,2,2)

Now, the output is

      \draw[mylinestyle](-1,-1)--(.333,.333);
      \filldraw[mypolygonstyle,thick](0,0)--(1,0)--(0,1)--cycle;
      \draw[mylinestyle](.333,.333)--(2,2);

A useful technique is to include user-defined style definitions in `sketch` code as `special`s with option `[lay=under]` to ensure that the styles are emitted first in the output, before any uses of the style names. 1 For example,

      special|\tikzstyle{mypolygonstyle} = [fill=blue!20,fill opacity=0.8]|[lay=under]
      special|\tikzstyle{mylinestyle} = [red!20,dashed]|[lay=under]

The author is responsible for using the key, `line style` or `fill style`, that matches the content of the style definition.

#### Footnotes

[1] This clever trick is due to Kjell Magne Fauske.