Text over picture with white space

Question

I'd like to label some level curves with values that are superimposed over the level curves, creating white space around the labels so that the underlying curves appear "broken". I figured a simple \mbox would work, but the curves pass right through .

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\unitlength}{1in}
\begin{picture}(0,0)(0,0)
\qbezier(0,0)(.5,-.5)(1,0)
\put(.45,-.3){\makebox{-8}}
\end{picture}

\end{document}

Thanks for your suggestions.

Answer 1

You need to add color to the background of the box, with the \colorbox macro from the xcolor package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\unitlength}{1in}
\begin{picture}(0,0)(0,0)
\qbezier(0,0)(.5,-.5)(1,0)
\put(.45,-.3){\colorbox{white}{-8}}
\end{picture}

\end{document}