Ttgjyuk

How to draw the letter π not in the standard way (i.e. pi)?

I mean "draw", not "type"! Today there will be no pi, but there will be something like this

documentclass[tikz]standalone
begindocument
begintikzpicture
draw (0,2)--(3,2);
draw (1,0)--(1,2);
draw (2,0)--(2,2);
endtikzpicture
enddocument

(inspired by David Carlisle – I draw this in TikZ just because I don't know how to use picture ;))

Or this

documentclass[tikz]standalone
usepackagetikzducks
begindocument
begintikzpicture
duck
duck[xshift=1cm,yshift=2cm]
duck[xshift=1cm,yshift=4cm]
duck[xshift=1cm,yshift=6cm]
duck[xshift=0cm,yshift=8cm]
duck[xshift=-2cm,yshift=7.5cm]
duck[xshift=2cm,yshift=8cm]
duck[xshift=4cm,yshift=8cm]
duck[xshift=6cm,yshift=8cm]
duck[xshift=8cm,yshift=8cm]
duck[xshift=5cm,yshift=6cm]
duck[xshift=5cm,yshift=4cm]
duck[xshift=5.5cm,yshift=2cm]
duck[xshift=6.5cm,yshift=0cm]
duck[xshift=8cm,yshift=1cm]
node[font=huge] at (4,11) tikzducks;
endtikzpicture
enddocument

They are my proudest π drawings, and as today is Pi day, I'd like to see yours!

Writing π with the digits of π - using the verbatim environment.

documentclassarticle
linespread0.7
begindocument
beginverbatim
 3.141592653589793238462643383279
 5028841971693993751058209749445923
 07816406286208998628034825342117067
 9821 48086 5132 
 823 06647 09384
46 09550 58223
17 25359 4081
 2848 1117
 4502 8410
 2701 9385
 21105 55964
 46229 48954
 9303 81964
 4288 10975
 66593 34461
 284756 48233
 78678 31652 71
 2019091 456485 66
 9234603 48610454326648
 2133936 0726024914127
 3724587 00660631558
 817488 152092096
endverbatim
enddocument

Based on ascii art drawing by Jorel - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorel314/3352784321/

Happy pi(less) day!!

documentclassreport
begindocument
noindent%
rule30pt1pt\[-1pt]
rule8pt0pt%
rule1pt30pt%
rule12pt0pt%
rule1pt30pt
enddocument

One should also honor Euler a bit.

documentclass[tikz,border=3.14mm]standalone
usepackagetikzlings,amsmath
makeatletter
tikzset/thing/.cd,
 pie/.code=thing@cheesetruedefthing@cheese#1, %<-pretend you didn't see that
 pie/.default=pink!70!red
makeatother 
begindocument
begintikzpicture[font=sffamily]
marmot[pie,whiskers,teeth,shadow]
node[anchor=east,scale=5,transform shape] at (-0.6,1) $picdotmathsfe=textsffamily pie$;
endtikzpicture
enddocument

We could extract the MetaPost paths for the glyph pi from the font and draw it using LuaTeX. This does not yet work with TeX Live 2019. Something in luamplib and ConTeXt has changed.

documentclassarticle

usepackagefontspec
setmainfontlatinmodern-math.otf

usepackageluacode
beginluacode*

-- We need some utilities from ConTeXt
callbacks = callbacks or 
callbacks.supported = callbacks.supported or 
dofile(kpse.find_file("util-fmt.lua"))
dofile(kpse.find_file("node-ini.lua"))
dofile(kpse.find_file("font-mps.lua"))
dofile(kpse.find_file("font-shp.lua"))

-- That's a simple reimplemetation of ConTeXt's showshape macro
function outlinepaths(character)
 local fontid = font.current()
 local shapedata = fonts.hashes.shapes[fontid] -- by index
 local chardata = fonts.hashes.characters[fontid] -- by unicode
 local shapeglyphs = shapedata.glyphs or 

 character = utf.byte(character)
 local c = chardata[character]
 if c then
 if not c.index then
 return 
 end
 local glyph = shapeglyphs[c.index]
 if glyph and (glyph.segments or glyph.sequence) then
 local units = shapedata.units or 1000
 local factor = 100/units
 local paths = fonts.metapost.paths(glyph,factor)
 return paths
 end
 end
end

endluacode*

usepackageluamplib
mplibsetformatmetafun
everymplibbeginfig(0);
everyendmplibendfig;

defmpdefineoutlines#1directlua

 local char = "luaescapestring#1"
 local outlines = outlinepaths("#1")
 for i, path in ipairs(outlines) do
 tex.print("fill " .. path .. ";")
 end

 

begindocument 

beginmplibcode

 mpdefineoutlines𝜋

endmplibcode

enddocument

Instead of using luamplib, we could also simply print the path to the log file and copy it to a MetaPost file. With some additonal formatting we get:

prologues := 3;
outputformat := "pdf";

beginfig(1)
 fill (56.70,40.70)
 .. controls (56.70,43.10) and (54.60,43.10)
 .. (52.70,43.10)
 -- (19.20,43.10)
 .. controls (17,43.10) and (13.20,43.10)
 .. (8.80,38.40)
 .. controls (5.30,34.50) and (2.70,29.90)
 .. (2.70,29.40)
 .. controls (2.70,29.40) and (2.70,28.40)
 .. (3.90,28.40)
 .. controls (4.70,28.40) and (4.90,28.80)
 .. (5.50,29.60)
 .. controls (10.40,37.30) and (16.20,37.30)
 .. (18.20,37.30)
 -- (23.90,37.30)
 .. controls (20.70,25.20) and (15.30,13.10)
 .. (11.10,4)
 .. controls (10.30,2.50) and (10.30,2.30)
 .. (10.30,1.60)
 .. controls (10.30,-0.30) and (11.90,-1.10)
 .. (13.20,-1.10)
 .. controls (16.20,-1.10) and (17,1.70)
 .. (18.20,5.40)
 .. controls (19.60,10) and (19.60,10.20)
 .. (20.90,15.20)
 -- (26.50,37.30)
 -- (37.80,37.30)
 .. controls (34.50,22.50) and (33.60,18.20)
 .. (33.60,11.50)
 .. controls (33.60,10) and (33.60,7.30)
 .. (34.40,3.90)
 .. controls (35.40,-0.50) and (36.50,-1.10)
 .. (38,-1.10)
 .. controls (40,-1.10) and (42.10,0.70)
 .. (42.10,2.70)
 .. controls (42.10,3.30) and (42.10,3.50)
 .. (41.50,4.90)
 .. controls (38.60,12.10) and (38.60,18.60)
 .. (38.60,21.40)
 .. controls (38.60,26.70) and (39.30,32.10)
 .. (40.40,37.30)
 -- (51.80,37.30)
 .. controls (53.10,37.30) and (56.70,37.30)
 .. (56.70,40.70)
 -- cycle;
endfig;
end

Or you can even use the path with TikZ.

documentclassarticle

usepackagetikz

begindocument 

begintikzpicture[x=1pt,y=1pt]

 fill (56.70,40.70)
 .. controls (56.70,43.10) and (54.60,43.10)
 .. (52.70,43.10)
 -- (19.20,43.10)
 .. controls (17,43.10) and (13.20,43.10)
 .. (8.80,38.40)
 .. controls (5.30,34.50) and (2.70,29.90)
 .. (2.70,29.40)
 .. controls (2.70,29.40) and (2.70,28.40)
 .. (3.90,28.40)
 .. controls (4.70,28.40) and (4.90,28.80)
 .. (5.50,29.60)
 .. controls (10.40,37.30) and (16.20,37.30)
 .. (18.20,37.30)
 -- (23.90,37.30)
 .. controls (20.70,25.20) and (15.30,13.10)
 .. (11.10,4)
 .. controls (10.30,2.50) and (10.30,2.30)
 .. (10.30,1.60)
 .. controls (10.30,-0.30) and (11.90,-1.10)
 .. (13.20,-1.10)
 .. controls (16.20,-1.10) and (17,1.70)
 .. (18.20,5.40)
 .. controls (19.60,10) and (19.60,10.20)
 .. (20.90,15.20)
 -- (26.50,37.30)
 -- (37.80,37.30)
 .. controls (34.50,22.50) and (33.60,18.20)
 .. (33.60,11.50)
 .. controls (33.60,10) and (33.60,7.30)
 .. (34.40,3.90)
 .. controls (35.40,-0.50) and (36.50,-1.10)
 .. (38,-1.10)
 .. controls (40,-1.10) and (42.10,0.70)
 .. (42.10,2.70)
 .. controls (42.10,3.30) and (42.10,3.50)
 .. (41.50,4.90)
 .. controls (38.60,12.10) and (38.60,18.60)
 .. (38.60,21.40)
 .. controls (38.60,26.70) and (39.30,32.10)
 .. (40.40,37.30)
 -- (51.80,37.30)
 .. controls (53.10,37.30) and (56.70,37.30)
 .. (56.70,40.70)
 -- cycle;

endtikzpicture

enddocument

The output is rather unspectacular.