TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX
Hi all! TikZ is a widely-used LaTeX package for drawing figures in papers. It uses commands like \draw[->] (0,0) -- (1,2); to draw lines, shapes, text, etc. Academics usually code up their figures by hand, so there is lots of twiddling around with the coordinates and recompiling until things look nice. I guess it’s a bit like SVG, but it’s more code than markup, for example it has loops with \foreach.I built an open-source WYSIWYG TikZ editor (available for web and desktop) that allows you to edit your TikZ source code visually by dragging and resizing elements. It simultaneously shows the source code and the rendered figure, and lets you edit either one while the two views stay in sync. I’m not aware of any other editors that are simultaneously source editors and WYSIWYG (even for editing SVG or HTML), and I’m quite pleased with how well the combination works.The way the app is implemented is by parsing the TikZ code, and at all times keeping track of the exact source location of each object. Thereby, when a user drags an element to a new position, the app can override just the numbers in the coordinate without changing anything else in the code (such as line breaks or indentation).This approach essentially required reimplementing a large fraction of TikZ, which is the kind of task that no human would ever want to do. I think building software that doesn’t exist yet because it would be impossibly tedious to code up is one of the great new possibilities thanks to coding agents, and it’s worth brainstorming for other examples. (This app was built almost entirely by Codex.)Implementing the app came with lots of fun side quests, including building converters from SVG / pptx / ipe to TikZ, re-implementing the LaTeX hyphenation and line-breaking algorithm to support multi-line nodes, and making a color picker that uses the red!20!black color mixing notation used in LaTeX papers.
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A dual-view TikZ editor that lets academics edit LaTeX figures by dragging elements while keeping source code in sync, solving the tedious coordinate-tweaking problem.
The pain
The gap
Build angle
Strengths
- Solves a specific, real pain point for a defined user group (academic LaTeX users)
- Technical approach is defensible, the dual-view sync mechanism is non-trivial to replicate
- Already built and open-source, so proof of concept exists
- Converters from SVG/PPTX/IPE add utility and reduce switching costs
- Addresses a workflow bottleneck that wastes researcher time
Risks
- Market size is small: only academics and researchers actively using TikZ, probably <100k globally
- No clear monetization path, open-source positioning makes charging difficult
- TikZ is a niche tool; most academics use simpler tools or outsource figure design
- Maintenance burden: TikZ updates, LaTeX changes, and browser compatibility require ongoing work
- Network effects are weak; value doesn't increase with more users
- Competitive threat from AI-powered figure generation tools that bypass TikZ entirely
- User acquisition is hard, reaching scattered academics requires content marketing or academic partnerships
Fly Labs Method
Is the pain real, is there a gap, is it the right time, can one person build it.
Value Equation
Dream outcome and how likely it feels, against the time and effort it costs.
One-Person Business
Curiosity pull, identity fit, and a path from free value to paid for a solo creator.
Viral Frameworks
Hook strength, shareability, and how cheaply it can be tested.
Builder Lens
Evidence the problem exists, timing, defensibility, and a model that fits on a napkin.
Five lenses, one composite. How scoring works
The angle
No market research recorded for this idea yet.
Semble – Code search for agents that uses 98% fewer tokens than grep
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Consus (YC F24) – LLM gateway for companies handling sensitive data
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