How to draw a graph in LaTeX?

Question

First of all, let me say I'm using LyX, though I have no problem using ERT.

Secondly, what is the most simplest way to draw a simple graph like this in Latex?

I've seen some documents with graphs and I've seen some examples, but I couldn't figure out how to just draw a simple graph - what packages do I need, etc?

Answer 1

TikZ can do this.

A quick demo:

\documentclass{article}  \usepackage{tikz}  \begin{document}  \begin{tikzpicture}   [scale=.8,auto=left,every node/.style={circle,fill=blue!20}]   \node (n6) at (1,10) {6};   \node (n4) at (4,8)  {4};   \node (n5) at (8,9)  {5};   \node (n1) at (11,8) {1};   \node (n2) at (9,6)  {2};   \node (n3) at (5,5)  {3};    \foreach \from/\to in {n6/n4,n4/n5,n5/n1,n1/n2,n2/n5,n2/n3,n3/n4}     \draw (\from) -- (\to);  \end{tikzpicture}  \end{document} 

produces:

More examples @ http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/tag/graphs/

More information about TikZ: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pgf/ where I guess an installation guide will also be present.

Answer 2

Aside from the (excellent) suggestion to use TikZ, you could use gastex. I used this before TikZ was available and it did its job too.