suanpan-l3 – Traditional Chinese 7-beads suanpan (abacus) package based on l3draw

This traditional Chinese 7-beads abacus drawing package utilizes l3draw and is developed with expl3. It can effectively manage both upper and lower beads, while also considering bottom bead, top bead, and hanging bead.

The package offers a unique environment for drawing abacuses, denoted as suanpan. Within this environment, 7 specialized macros are available for the creation of abacuses. The \rod macro is used to lay out a single rod, while the \rod* macro draws a counting point on this rod’s beam. The \rods macro is capable of laying out a set of rods. The \bead macro colors the specified bead. The \beads macro colors all inner beads that are near the beam, while the \beads* macro colors all outer beads that are far from the beam. Lastly, the \lrframe macro is used to lay out the left and right frames of an abacus.

At the same time, the package offers customization options for abacus, including line width, draw color, fill color, bead space, rod space, etc. These can be configured through package options, suanpan environment options, or the \suanpanset macro.

Sources	/macros/latex/contrib/suanpan-l3
Documentation	README.md Package documentation
Bug tracker	https://gitee.com/nwafu_nan/suan-pan/issues
Repository	https://gitee.com/nwafu_nan/suan-pan
Developers	https://gitee.com/nwafu_nan/suan-pan/pulls
Version	2.1.1 2026-08-12
Licenses	The LaTeX Project Public License 1.3c
Copyright	2020–2026 Nan Geng
Maintainer	Nan Geng
Contained in	TeX Live as suanpan-l3 MiKTeX as suanpan-l3
Topics	Diagrams

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