# Vertical aligment with tikzpicture

I have a problem with vertical alignment in a tabular environment with tikzpicture.

My code so far is:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& = &
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (3,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& * &
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,3);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

which gives a result:

But what I want is more like this:

How can I do it?

-

You can use the baseline option to your tikzpictures. (Use $\ast$ instead of plain *, to adjust the baseline)

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}% for cropping
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={(0,1.4-1.4/2)}]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& = &
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={(0,1.4-1.4/2)}]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (3,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& $\ast$ &
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={(0,2.8-1.4/2)}]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,3);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

-
Thank you very much! – anfneub Mar 23 '14 at 13:23

One way is to set the baseline key of the environment

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(current bounding box.center)]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& = &
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(current bounding box.center)]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (3,1.6);
\end{tikzpicture}
& * &
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={([yshift=0.7cm]current bounding box.center)}]% We know the step
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,3);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

The other one is drawing all by TikZ,

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(current bounding box.center)]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,1.6);
\begin{scope}[shift={(0.8,0)}]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (3,1.6);
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(4.4,-1.4)}]
\draw[step=0.2cm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (0.2,3);
\end{scope}
\node at (0.5,0.8) {$=$};
\node at (4.1,0.8) {${\times}$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

-