Drawing a Clock in LaTeX

Introduction

In an earlier post, the blog covered how to create a clock animation in GeoGebra. This article focuses on a different approach: drawing an analog clock directly in LaTeX with TikZ.

The final result will look like this.

Step by Step

1. Open your LaTeX editor, either online or offline.
2. Load the tikz and xcolor packages in the preamble.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{xcolor}

3. Start the document body.

\begin{document}

4. Define the drawing scale. This example uses a scale of 1.25.

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.25]

5. Draw the main circle of the clock.

\fill[black] (0,0) circle(0.9);

You can change the color or adjust the radius 0.9 to fit your design.

6. Add the hour numbers around the circle.

\foreach \angle / \label in {0/3, 30/2, 60/1, 90/12, 120/11, 150/10, 180/9, 210/8, 240/7, 270/6, 300/5, 330/4}
{
  \draw (\angle:0.75) node[text=white]{\tiny{\label}};
}

A full circle is $360^\circ$, so each hour marker is separated by $30^\circ$.

7. Draw the hour hand.

\draw[line width=1.5pt, white, cap=round] (0,0) -- (118:0.3);

8. Draw the minute hand.

\draw[line width=1.5pt, white, cap=round] (0,0) -- (0:0.5);

9. Draw the second hand.

\draw[line width=.5pt, red, cap=round] (0,0) -- (-120:0.6);

You can change the position, length, color, and thickness of each hand to show a different time.

10. Add a small circle at the center of the clock.

\fill[blue] (0,0) circle(1.2pt);

11. If you want, add a small brand label or name inside the clock face.

\node[scale=0.5] at (90:0.6) {\color{white}{\tiny AAN}};
\node[scale=0.5] at (-90:0.6) {\color{white}{\tiny TRIONO}};

12. Close the tikzpicture environment and the document.

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Full Code

Here is the complete example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\title{Clock}
\author{Aan Triono}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\centering
\maketitle

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.25]
\fill[black] (0,0) circle(0.9);
\draw[line width=1.5pt, white, cap=round] (0,0) -- (118:0.3);
\draw[line width=1.5pt, white, cap=round] (0,0) -- (0:0.5);
\draw[line width=.5pt, red, cap=round] (0,0) -- (-120:0.6);
\fill[blue] (0,0) circle(1.2pt);
\foreach \angle / \label in {0/3, 30/2, 60/1, 90/12, 120/11, 150/10, 180/9, 210/8, 240/7, 270/6, 300/5, 330/4}
{
  \draw (\angle:0.75) node[text=white]{\tiny{\label}};
}
\node[scale=0.5] at (90:0.6) {\color{white}{\tiny AAN}};
\node[scale=0.5] at (-90:0.6) {\color{white}{\tiny TRIONO}};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Closing

TikZ makes it possible to draw simple objects like an analog clock directly in LaTeX without relying on another application. For more ideas and references, see latexdraw.com.