Displace element from its computed position

Question

Is there some command to wrap around an element \unknown{<element>} that gives a way to place an element, say, 5cm above where it would be placed without the unknown wrapper, even if it overlaps something as a result.

Basically, a command that pushes an element 5cm up in any scenario.

My particular use case is that I want to add an x-label to a graph after-the-fact.

Answer 1

You can raise the text using \raisebox{<amount>}[<set height>][<set depth>]{<content>} and also change its official height and depth. The original dimensions are available as \height, \depth, \totalheight (height+depth) and \width.

So \raisebox{5cm}[\height][\depth]{<some content>} should move it 5cm up, but keep the original dimensions as they are, making LaTeX think the content didn't change.

Answer 2

There are several ways:

For the more complex examples, you can use the following:

\setlength{\unitlength}{1cm}
\begin{picture}(0,0) % make a drawing area that takes no place
  \put(5,3){Still, you can put this text 5 cm right and 3 cm above}
  \put(0,0){And another one, placed at the "original point", but occupying no space}
\end{picture}

If you want it to occupy its place in horizontal, but to move vertially, you can use

\strut% ensures that the line has the correct height
\smash{% smashes its content verically
  \raise 5cm% move the following box 5 cm up
    \hbox{% horizontal contents
      Foo bar}}

And you can omit all the % and newlines and say just

\strut\smash{\raise 5cm\hbox{Foo bar}}