A simple example on how to use PGF in LaTeX

main.tex

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[inner=30mm,outer=20mm,top=25mm,bottom=25mm,headsep=10mm,footskip=12mm,includehead,includefoot,marginparwidth=15mm]{geometry}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{pgf}
\usepackage{pgfkeys}
\usepackage{pgfmath}

\title{A simple example how to use PGF plots in LaTeX}
\author{www.tspi.at}
\date{26. June 2025}

\begin{document}
	\maketitle

	This document is a very simple example on how to utilize our PGF
	graphics in a LaTeX document that is automatically built using
	GNU \texttt{make}. You can see the graphics in figure \ref{fig:sinecosine}

	\begin{figure}
		\input{figures/sinecosine.pgf}
		\caption{Our sine and cosine PGF rendering}
		\label{fig:sinecosine}
	\end{figure}
\end{document}

Makefile

LATEX_FLAGS = -halt-on-error -interaction=nonstopmode
LATEX = pdflatex
BIBTEX = bibtex

FIGURES_DIR := figures
FIGURES_SCRIPTS := $(wildcard $(FIGURES_DIR)/*.py)
PGF_FILES := $(FIGURES_SCRIPTS:.py=.pgf)

all: main.pdf clean

.phony: clean cleanall graphics

graphics: $(PGF_FILES)

$(FIGURES_DIR)/%.pgf: $(FIGURES_DIR)/%.py
	@echo "Generating $@ from $<"
	cd $(FIGURES_DIR) && python3.11 $(<F)

main.pdf: main.tex graphics

	$(LATEX) $(LATEX_FLAGS) main.tex
#	-$(BIBTEX) main
#	$(LATEX) $(LATEX_FLAGS) main.tex
	$(LATEX) $(LATEX_FLAGS) main.tex

clean:

	rm -rf *.aux *.bbl *.blg *.log *.out *.toc *.lof *.lot *.ist *.glo *.acn

cleanall: clean

	rm -rf main.pdf
	rm -rf $(FIGURES_DIR)/*.pgf

sinecosine.py

# Before importing the plt object we have to set the PGF backend

import matplotlib as mpl
mpl.use('pgf')

# Then do imports as usual

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Our parameters

f = 10 # We do calculation at 10 Hz
omega = 2 * np.pi * f
t = np.linspace(0, 1, 1000) # One second period with 1000 sampling steps
A = 1.0 # Amplitude

f1 = A * np.sin(omega * t)
f2 = A * np.cos(omega * t)

fig,ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(t, f1, label = "Sine")
ax.plot(t, f2, label = "Cosine")
ax.grid()
ax.set_xlabel("Time [s]")
ax.set_ylabel("Function value [arb.]")
ax.legend()

plt.savefig('sinecosine.pgf', format = 'pgf')