Chapter 6 – Graphics Primitives

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of graphics primitives. Graphics is a command designed to build plots from graphics primitives. The primitives include line, circle, arrow, text, and rectangle. The styles of the primitives can be adjusted with graphics directives. There are such directives as point size, thickness, dashing, gray level, RGB color, and opacity. Building plots from scratch with Graphics is one use of the primitives and directives. This may also be called graphics programming. These directives can be used in enhancing usual plots with options such as PlotStyle. The importance of the primitives and directives is even clearer considering the fact that all plots in Mathematica are made up of these components. One can construct a plot directly from the primitives and directives, and the primitives and directives can be used to modify plots with options.