Xrhrft

One of my favorite poets is probably Guillaume Apollinaire. His story and proximity to Picasso made him a precursor. Calligrams was a constant attempt to merge poetry and visual. I am wondering how we could actually recreate in TikZ

This is just to mention that TikZ has already built in a large selection of tricks that can be applied to paths. Here is a very basic example. (Yes, I know I am not a poet.;-)

documentclass[tikz,border=3.14mm]{standalone}

usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}

begin{document}

begin{tikzpicture}

defmypath{

 (-2,0) to[bend right=10] (0,5.1)

 to[bend right=10] (2,0) -- (1.5,0) -- (0.8,1) -- (-0.8,1) -- (-1.5,0) -- cycle}

draw mypath; 

path[decorate,decoration={text along path,

text={In Paris there is a tower and beneath it there grows a flower. And often

on Mondays there is a shower.}}] mypath;

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

The IMHO most stunning tools are however not from the pgfmanual, but due to Paul Gaborit's great answer. You basically define the contour and the macro takes care of the rest. (Of course, you may want to tune things in the end a bit, but it is stunning how much it does out of the box.)

documentclass{standalone}

usepackage{lmodern}

usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

usepackage{shapepar}

usepackage{microtype}

usepackage{lipsum}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{calc,fit,intersections}



defshapeparnodeaccuracy{2}

newcommandshapeparnode[6]{

  % 6 parameters:

  % style for node (default:empty),

  % h margin, v margin, left path, right path, text (just one paragraph!)



  % name left and right paths and compute there bounding boxes

  begin{scope}[local bounding box=leftbb]

    path[name path global=left,xshift=#2] #4;

  end{scope}

  node[inner ysep=-#3,inner xsep=0pt,fit=(leftbb)](leftbb){};

  begin{scope}[local bounding box=rightbb]

    path[name path global=right,xshift=-#2] #5;

  end{scope}

  node[inner ysep=-#3,inner xsep=0pt,fit=(rightbb)](rightbb){};



  % global bounding box

  path let

  p1=(leftbb.north west), p2=(leftbb.south west),

  p3=(rightbb.north east), p4=(rightbb.south east)

  in

  pgfextra{

    pgfmathsetmacro{ymin}{(y1 < y3) ? y1 : y3}

    pgfmathsetmacro{ymax}{(y2 > y4) ? y2 : y4}

    typeout{ymin ymin}

    typeout{ymax ymax}

  } node[inner sep=0,fit={(x1,ymin pt)(x3,ymax pt)}](mybb){};



  % compute nb steps

  path let p1=(mybb.north), p2=(mybb.south) in

  pgfextra{

    pgfmathsetmacro{fnthght}{1em/shapeparnodeaccuracy}

    pgfmathtruncatemacro{nbsteps}{(y1-y2)/fnthght}

    xdefnbsteps{nbsteps}

    typeout{nb steps nbsteps}

  };



  % horizontal references

  path (mybb.north) -- (mybb.south)

  foreach cnt in {0,1,...,nbsteps}{

    pgfextra{pgfmathsetmacro{pos}{cnt/nbsteps}}

    coordinate[pos=pos] (ref cnt)

  };



  % left and right boundaries coordinates

  foreach cnt in {0,1,...,nbsteps}{

    % an horizontal line from left to right

    path[name path=ltor]

    (mybb.west |- ref cnt) --  (mybb.east |- ref cnt);

    % same line from right to left

    path[name path=rtol]

    (mybb.east |- ref cnt) -- (mybb.west |- ref cnt);

    % left boundary

    path[name intersections={of=rtol and left,by={l cnt},sort by=rtol}];

    % right boundary

    path[name intersections={of=ltor and right,by={r cnt},sort by=ltor}];

  }

  % start point (and initial value of boundshape)

  path let p1=(l 0) in 

  pgfextra{

    pgfmathsetmacro{xstart}{x1}

    xdefboundshape{{0}{0}b{xstart}}

    xdefxmin{xstart}

    xdefxmax{xstart}

  };



  % top and bottom

  path let p1=(l 0), p2=(l nbsteps) in

  pgfextra{

    pgfmathsetmacro{ystart}{y1}xdefystart{ystart}

    pgfmathsetmacro{yending}{y2}xdefyending{yending}

  };

  % incremental definition of boundshape

  foreach cnt in {0,1,...,nbsteps}{

    path let p1=(l cnt), p2=(r cnt) in

    pgfextra{

      pgfmathsetmacro{start}{x1}

      pgfmathsetmacro{len}{x2-x1}

      pgfmathsetmacro{ypos}{cnt/nbsteps*(ystart - yending)}

      {let\=relax xdefboundshape{boundshape\{ypos}t{start}{len}}}

      pgfmathsetmacro{xmin}{(xmin < start) ? xmin : start}

      xdefxmin{xmin}

      pgfmathsetmacro{xmax}{(xmax > start + len) ? xmax : start + len}

      xdefxmax{xmax}

    };

  }

  % draw the node with text in a shapepar

  pgfmathsetmacro{ymax}{ystart - yending}

  {let\=relax xdefboundshape{boundshape\{ymax}e{0}}}

  node[#1,text width=xmax pt - xmin pt,align=flush left,

  anchor=north west,inner sep=0]

  at (mybb.north west -| xmin pt,0)

  {Shapepar[1pt]{boundshape}#6par};

}



defmytext{In Paris there is a tower and beneath it there grows a flower.}



begin{document}%

  begin{tikzpicture}

      defpathone{(0,1) -- (-0.8,1) -- (-1.5,0) --

      (-2,0) to[bend right=10] (0,5.1)}

      defpathtwo{(0,5.1)

    to[bend right=10] (2,0) -- (1.5,0) -- (0.8,1) -- (-0.8,1)}

      fill[top color=lime,bottom color=orange,middle color=yellow,draw=white]

      pathone -- pathtwo -- cycle;

      defpathone{(0,1) -- (-0.8,1) -- (-1.5,0) --

      (-1.6,0) to[bend right=10] (0,4.1)}

      defpathtwo{(0,4.1)

    to[bend right=10] (1.6,0) -- (1.5,0) -- (0.8,1) -- (-0.8,1)}

      shapeparnode[text=black,font=footnotesizescshape]

      {0.1em}{0.1em}{pathone}{pathtwo}{mytext}%

      %draw[orange] pathone;

      %draw[orange] pathtwo;

end{tikzpicture}

end{document}