tikz-catan

tikz-catan is a LaTeX package that draws boards of The Settlers of Catan as TikZ graphics: the 19-hex board with resources, number tokens, ports, settlements, cities, roads, and the robber. Output is vector, in the document's fonts; the only dependency is TikZ.

Installation

Copy tikz-catan.sty into the same directory as the main .tex file (on Overleaf, upload it to the project root) and load it with \usepackage{tikz-catan}. For a system-wide install, place the file in TEXMFHOME/tex/latex/tikz-catan/ instead; kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME prints that location. TikZ ships with every standard TeX distribution, so nothing else is needed.

Quick start

\documentclass[tikz,border=8pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz-catan}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \catanframe % sea frame
  \standardboard{\hexfull} % 19 hexes, full color
  \standardports{\port} % nine ports
  \robber{0}{0} % robber on the desert
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The same tikzpicture works inside any document class. \standardboard and \standardports are a built-in legal example layout: correct tile and token multisets, no adjacent 6/8 tokens, and a token-free desert.

Usage

A board is written as data, one {q}{r}{resource}{number} entry per hex, and passed to a renderer that decides how each hex is drawn; drawing the same board in another style means changing only the renderer name. Here (q,r) are axial hex coordinates (the manual contains a labeled map), resource is one of wood brick sheep wheat ore desert, and number 0 means no token (the desert). \catanrows builds the same list from five comma-separated rows, so coordinates never have to be written by hand.

Highlighting means declaring hexes of interest, then rendering with \hexauto: declared hexes draw in full color and all others gray out. A declaration names one coordinate (\hlhex{q}{r}), every hex of one resource (\hlres{wheat}), or every hex with a given dice number (\hlnum{6}); a hex lights up if it matches any declaration, and declarations reset outside the current tikzpicture. \portauto applies the same rule to harbors. Pieces and ports are placed by naming a hex plus one of its corners or sides. Each feature below is shown in the Gallery.

Corners are N NE SE S SW NW; sides are NE E SE SW W NW (side E runs from corner NE to corner SE; a vertex can be addressed through any of the up to three hexes that share it). Port types are generic (3:1) or a resource name (2:1). Player colors pred pblue porange pwhite are predefined, and every palette color is a redefinable xcolor name. \CatanS is the hex circumradius in cm (default 1.05); \cataniconsfalse removes the resource art from hexes. User-supplied boards and placements are not validated.

Gallery

Source files for these are in examples/; the full manual is doc/tikz-catan-doc.pdf.

License and attribution

MIT, see LICENSE. All artwork is original flat geometry; no official Catan art is reproduced. Not affiliated with Catan GmbH or Catan Studio.