Smart Diagrams

This tutorial introduces the smartdiagram package in LaTeX. The package provides several ready-to-use diagram styles, which makes it useful when you want to add simple visual structure to a document without building everything manually in TikZ.

Types of Smart Diagrams

Some of the available styles are:

• Flow diagram
• Circular diagram
• Bubble diagram
• Descriptive diagram
• Constellation diagram
• Priority descriptive diagram
• Animating diagram

Before trying the examples below, prepare a basic document like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{smartdiagram}
\begin{document}
...
\end{document}

A. Flow Diagram

A flow diagram can be displayed horizontally or vertically.

Horizontal example:

\smartdiagram[flow diagram:horizontal]{
  Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

The output looks like this.

To switch to a vertical layout, replace horizontal with vertical.

\smartdiagram[flow diagram:vertical]{
  Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

B. Circular Diagram

A circular diagram places items around a circle.

Clockwise rotation:

\smartdiagram[circular diagram:clockwise]{
  Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

Counterclockwise rotation:

\smartdiagram[circular diagram:anticlockwise]{
  Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

C. Bubble Diagram

A bubble diagram places one main concept in the center and supporting items around it.

\smartdiagram[bubble diagram]{
  Teacher Competence, Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

D. Descriptive Diagram

A descriptive diagram is useful when each item also needs a short explanation.

\smartdiagram[descriptive diagram]{
  {Pedagogic,{The teacher's ability to manage the learning process}},
  {Personality,{Personal character that reflects a good attitude}},
  {Professional,{Deep and broad mastery of the subject matter}},
  {Social,{The ability to communicate and interact effectively}}
}

E. Constellation Diagram

A constellation diagram places one core item in the center and connects surrounding items with arrows.

\smartdiagram[constellation diagram]{
  Teacher Competence, Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}

F. Priority Descriptive Diagram

This diagram style is useful when you want to emphasize a sequence or hierarchy.

\smartdiagram[priority descriptive diagram]{
  Planning instruction,
  Delivering instruction,
  Evaluating instruction,
  Assessing outcomes,
  Analyzing outcomes,
  Following up the outcomes
}

G. Animating Diagram

An animating diagram is usually used in a beamer presentation. The diagram appears step by step across slides.

Basic example:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{smartdiagram}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\smartdiagramanimated[circular diagram]{
  Pedagogic, Personality, Professional, Social
}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Example output:

Closing

The smartdiagram package offers several ready-made layouts and is a practical choice when you need diagrams quickly inside a LaTeX document or presentation. The colors in these examples are the package defaults, but they can be customized further if needed.