{boxes} are the units used by (La)TeX to construct a page by pasting them together horizontally or vertically. A single character from a font is a box, as are the lines of type and the eventual page.
111
votes
6answers
22k views
Remove ugly borders around clickable cross-references and hyperlinks
I know that I can use hyperref to make cross-references and hyperlinks clickable. That makes the clickable areas outlined in fluorescent green, however. How can I make the green boxes go away?
59
votes
1answer
2k views
What are the different kinds of boxes in (La)TeX?
I've seen hbox, vbox, mbox, parbox and others used in various code samples. What are the different kinds of box in (La)Tex? Which are suitable for use in LaTeX, as opposed to plain TeX?
50
votes
2answers
10k views
What does “overfull hbox” mean?
I often see output from TeX with the warning overfull hbox, badness 10000. What does this message mean?
45
votes
5answers
2k views
Is there no easier way to float objects and set margins?
I come from a HTML / CSS background and am used to a particular way of setting margins, floats, etc. As a beginner in TeX, I am having a hard time positioning elements, probably because my mindset is ...
45
votes
4answers
2k views
How can I visualize boxes?
This question led to a new package:
lua-visual-debug
Some of you may know the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox that can outline the block level elements of a page like this:
Is there a way to ...
36
votes
3answers
12k views
What are underfull hboxes and vboxes and how can I get rid of them?
Often, TeX outputs underfull hbox and vbox warnings when running and in the generated log file. What are these and how can I get rid of them?
31
votes
3answers
10k views
\parbox vs. minipage: Differences in applicability
Lamport, LaTeX: A document preparation system, states on p. 104:
There are two ways to make a parbox at a given point in the text: with the \parbox command and the minipage environment. They can ...
27
votes
3answers
1k views
How to create Highlight Boxes in LaTeX?
I am writing an Article in LaTeX.
Please suggest me how to create a highlight boxes like the ones shown below in LaTeX:
26
votes
5answers
1k views
Confused with TeX terminology: height, depth, width
The LaTeX reference card states for example
\strut box w/ ht and depth of “(”, zero width
I came to see text as a two dimensional feature, but I must be missing out on something...
(following ...
26
votes
2answers
2k views
How to rotate a box in-place
The following LaTeX code illustrates my question. Is it possible to get what I want without doing the negative \hskip, as I want a simple generic solution which will rotate the box to any angle ...
25
votes
4answers
827 views
Bounding box for each letter
How can I take input text and replace each character with a solid (and/or hollow) rectangle representing the bounding box for that character? In the case where two characters are closer together from ...
25
votes
1answer
3k views
Function and usage of \leavevmode
I am beginner of LaTeX. From many examples I found, I notice that it's very common to use command \leavevmode. I can't find any information about this command. Could anyone tell me what's the function ...
24
votes
2answers
1k views
How to keep a constant baselineskip when using minipages (or \parboxes)?
When a minipage is used to box a text paragraph, the first line of the minipaged text and the last line of the previous text paragraph are closer than two consecutive lines in a standard text ...
24
votes
1answer
2k views
\setbox vs. \sbox and \savebox - What are the differences I need to know about?
What's the difference between using TeX's \setbox and LaTeX's \sbox and \savebox?
23
votes
1answer
1k views
Definition of \strut explained
Can anyone explain me the fine details of the \strut macro. Why is the box \copyied in mathmode but \unhcopyied otherwise?
% latex.ltx, line 484, but identical in plainTeX
...
22
votes
2answers
479 views
How good a juggler is TeX?
I recently made an adaptation of pgfpages which allows one to gather in several typeset pages and then lay them out in some layout over several physical pages (the original pgfpages only allows one ...
21
votes
4answers
1k views
Fit text into given box by adjusting the fontsize
I would like to fit text (potentially several paragraphs) into a box of given size. This should be done by adjusting the fontsize of the contained text.
Clarification edit: The given dimensions are ...
19
votes
3answers
3k views
How to highlight an entire paragraph?
I'd like to highlight paragraphs such that the highlight color appears as one whole rectangle underlying the entire paragraph. I have looked around but nothing gives me the desired effect so far.
For ...
19
votes
4answers
3k views
Faded drop-shadow using tikz-based rounded rectangle?
Background
Epigraphs are in a box with rounded corners. The boxes have a drop-shadow.
Example
Picture #1 shows a shadow, while Picture #2 shows a shadow that fades out (soft blur):
Problem
...
18
votes
2answers
3k views
Highlight an equation within an align environment
I would like to define a command that puts a red box around an equation with yellow highlighting. I have the basics working pretty well. What I am unable to figure out is:
How to keep the alignment ...
18
votes
1answer
188 views
Box that behaves like vbox but its width is that of its content?
I need a box that fulfils these conditions:
It can contain multiple lines (and paragraphs) of text (unlike \hbox)
A line that is longer then \textwidth is split to the next line (like \parbox, \vbox ...
18
votes
2answers
4k views
What's the difference between \strut, \mathstrut and \vphantom?
What's the difference between \strut, \mathstrut and \vphantom? When would I prefer one of them to the others, and why?
18
votes
1answer
535 views
Caption parbox 6.0 pt too wide
For my listings, I use this caption setup:
\usepackage{caption}
\DeclareCaptionFont{white}{\color{white}}
\DeclareCaptionFormat{listing}{\colorbox{gray}{\parbox{\textwidth}{#1#2#3}}}
...
17
votes
3answers
637 views
How to clip a TeX box using low-level PS commands?
I like to clip an arbitrary TeX box (\hbox) but without using larger graphic related packages like PGF/TikZ or PSTricks. This is intended to be used in packages which should not force the user to also ...
16
votes
6answers
3k views
Text in squared box
I'd like to bot a square box around some text. I'd like to denote a labelled object of size 1, in combinatorics this is often symbolised by something like \boxed{1}. It would be nicer if the box was a ...
16
votes
3answers
376 views
(Why) Can't we get 'fully expandable' versions of every command?
I'm just starting to figure out what 'expandable' means in LaTeX, and why it is useful to have commands that expand as far as possible. In particular:
If you want to \typeout some string to the log ...
16
votes
2answers
225 views
What is \box255?
I'm just reading the everyshi manual, and it says:
This package provides the hooks \EveryShipout and \AtNextShipout
whose arguments are executed after the output routine has constructed
...
15
votes
4answers
312 views
Reasons for saving a box?
I've been reading through a number of answers that use \newsavebox to save the contents of a box. As far as I can tell it's a workaround for fragility of some kind. Is that right? If not, what is the ...
15
votes
2answers
163 views
Write content of box to a file
I would like to take the contents of a box generated with \begin{lrbox} ... \end{lrbox} and write it to a file.
The use case is a question and answer environment, where the answer should be collected ...
15
votes
1answer
343 views
Non-invasive replacement for \fbox?
I am trying to create a macro that improves on \fbox by working correctly in all cases and by being minimally invasive with respect to padding. What I've got so far works fairly well, but I'm having ...
14
votes
4answers
2k views
Horizontal equivalent to \raisebox?
Is there a horizontal equivalent to \raisebox? I'd like to shift some content horizontally without altering the layout of surrounding content.
Edit:
I feel bad because my question wasn't precise ...
14
votes
1answer
1k views
What is the command to highlight bad boxes in pdf?
I seem to remember a command to show bad boxes in a PDF when using latex, but googling is not helping me to remember.
How can I show bad boxes in my PDF?
13
votes
4answers
455 views
How to draw a square of 1cm in LaTeX filled with color?
How to draw a square of 1cm in LaTeX filled with colour? I found mdframed and framebox does this, but there need to write text inside it. I just need to draw a box.
13
votes
6answers
633 views
How to stack boxes like a vertical version of \mbox?
I would like a vertical equivalent to \mbox{} that somehow takes a sequence of boxes and stacks them on top of each other.
I'd like the resulting width to be the width of the widest box, and I'd like ...
13
votes
2answers
206 views
Persuading (la)tex “silently to go beyond the envelope of 'good taste' ” to avoid an overfull hbox
My understanding, based on reading this website, is that (la)tex performs at most three passes when trying to typeset a paragraph: one based on \pretolerance, one based on \tolerance, and one based on ...
13
votes
1answer
485 views
How to choose which sides of the border to draw in a `framebox`?
If, for example, you only want to draw the top and bottom border of a box, or perhaps the left and bottom only, is there a simple package to do this or must one resort to using tables or heavy-weight ...
13
votes
3answers
435 views
Is it possible to draw a nonprinting box around text, as in the hyperref package?
I would like to be able to draw a box that shows up on in the PDF but does not print, just like the boxes around links that are made using the hyperref package.
I would like to put a minipage ...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Why doesn't \settoheight of \parbox work?
Consider the following code:
\documentclass[a4paper]{letter}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{printlen}
\newsavebox{\foobox}
\newlength{\fooboxheight}
\savebox{\foobox}{
...
12
votes
2answers
236 views
Undo last vertical skip
I am trying to understand the sizes of boxes and skips so I decided I wanted to typeset text directly on top of some other text. I don't want to use textpos or anything like that. I am trying to ...
12
votes
3answers
416 views
Use \bgroup and \egroup to set some pre and post code to a macro
Why isn’t it possible to use \bgroup and \egroup in this way?
\documentclass{article}
\def\precode{\fbox\bgroup}
\def\postcode{\egroup}
\newcommand{\mymacro}[1]{\precode#1\postcode}
...
12
votes
2answers
3k views
Any way to center text within a \parbox?
Probably I'm missing something, but I'm really struggling to find an answer to this simple question:
How to center text within a \parbox?
Side note: I don't want to switch to any other environment ...
12
votes
2answers
842 views
Fitting text into a box over-a-pic
I am trying to fit a text into a box within an overpic environment. kongo09 had a similar question fit-text-into-given-box-by-adjusting-the-fontsize, and a highly workable solution was provided by ...
12
votes
3answers
720 views
Color box with rounded corners around a fragment of a formula
Is there any way in TeX to highlight some part of a formula with a box having colored background and rounded corners?
At present, I need to export such formulas into an image, add those highlight ...
12
votes
2answers
255 views
Missing Item number in enumerate
You would think that I would know better than to mess with an egreg solution, but in my defense I used a DavidCarlisle solution from \setbox vs. \sbox and \savebox - What are the differences I need to ...
12
votes
2answers
397 views
Why is \baselineskip not inserted before an \unvbox?
It seems that \setbox0=\vbox{\hbox{abc}}\unvbox0 is not equivalent to \hbox{abc}: the former does not insert a \baselineskip in the following situation.
\vbox{%
\hbox{XY}%
\hbox{abc}%
...
12
votes
1answer
4k views
Changing style of alert environment in beamer
I would like to specify a background color in the alert environment. I can, for example, use
\setbeamercolor{alerted text}{fg=blue}
to change the colour of the alterted text to blue, but this
...
12
votes
1answer
5k views
How to draw frame with rounded corners around box
Is it possible to simply draw a frame around a box which has rounded corners, and be able to control frame width, frame color, frame radius, box background colour
(preferably without having to use the ...
11
votes
1answer
467 views
how to draw a container box in latex around automata?
This is my tikz code :
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,shapes.geometric,arrows,fit,calc,positioning,automata,}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
...
11
votes
2answers
347 views
How to create Multilevel Colored Boxes using tcolorbox/any other package?
tcolorbox Manual provides the following example:
Can anybody please suggest me how to create exactly this type of box - The no. of rows to add must be flexible(It seems that tcolorbox has no option ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
Make an Example and shaded box like in the book
I want to make Examples in the book as in the following book
http://www.analogmachine.org/Books/Chapter1.pdf
See Page 2...
Also shaded box as in the page 3... Pictures can be seen below.
...
