Tell me more ×
TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt, and related typesetting systems. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 9 down vote favorite
2

Is it possible to specify a transparent background colour for the mdframed environment, so that anything which might be underneath will be visible?

share|improve this question
4  
mdframed can use TikZ and with the tikzsetting option you can pass arguments to tikzset. This way you should be able to change the opacity. I can't test this right now, but you can give it a try. – Roelof Spijker Dec 14 '11 at 16:04
I only want the background to be transparent, not the borders or text. Is this possible using 'tikzset' ? – Dan Dec 14 '11 at 16:43
1  
Like I said, I can't test this right now. But there is a fill opacity in TikZ that should only affect the background. – Roelof Spijker Dec 14 '11 at 17:04

2 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted

You must set the opacity to the whole environment.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{background}
\SetBgContents{top secret}
\SetBgColor{red}
%  \tikzset{mdfbackground/.style={fill=red,opacity=0.1,draw=green}}%
\newmdenv[tikzsetting={draw=blue,fill=red,},settings={\tikzset{every picture/.style={opacity=0.6}}}]{myenvironment}
\begin{document}
\BgThispage

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[blue,fill] (0,0) rectangle (8,4);
\node[text width=8cm] {\lipsum[1]};
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{myenvironment}
\lipsum[1]
\end{myenvironment}
\end{document}

share|improve this answer
That makers the text and the frame also transparent. But the solution suggested by Philippe Goutet in a comment to another answer seems to work. – Jan Hlavacek Dec 18 '11 at 20:58
up vote 11 down vote
+50

As mentioned in the comments, you can set mdframed to use TikZ. Here is a MWE that sets the fill opacity to 0.5; you can tweak it to whatever you would like between 0 (fully transparent, or invisible) and 1 (fully opaque, or solid)

screenshot

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newmdenv[tikzsetting={draw=blue,fill=red,fill opacity=0.5}]{myenvironment}

\begin{document}

\begin{myenvironment}
\lipsum[1]
\end{myenvironment}
\end{document}

Following @PhilippeGoutet's comment, you can use 

\newmdenv[tikzsetting={draw=blue,fill=red,fill opacity=0.5},backgroundcolor=none]{myenvironment}

which gives

screenshot

share|improve this answer
Thanks, but that doesn't give me what I want. If this box overlays any other text, I want to be able to see it. eg. \documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed} \usepackage{lipsum} \newmdenv[tikzsetting={draw=blue,fill=red,fill opacity=0.5}]{myenvironment} \begin{document} \vtop to 0pt{\LARGE Some text underneath} \begin{myenvironment} \lipsum[1] \end{myenvironment} \end{document} – Dan Dec 16 '11 at 14:23
@Dan I see the problem now- note that this wasn't completely obvious in your original question; this would have been a good place for a MWE. I'll work on your updated problem :) – cmhughes Dec 16 '11 at 16:56
Yes, my apologies, you are right, I should have provided an example, but I had no idea how to achieve the effect. I very much appreciate your efforts to help. – Dan Dec 17 '11 at 19:01
4  
@Dan: use \newmdenv[tikzsetting={fill=red,fill opacity=0.5},backgroundcolor=none]{myenvironment} – Philippe Goutet Dec 18 '11 at 18:47
@PhilippeGoutet Thank you very much, see my edit :) – cmhughes Dec 18 '11 at 21:23
show 2 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.