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How does one increase the height of the rows in a LaTeX table?

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  • Just one more question how to place the text in the middle but increasing the height.
    – user1965914
    Feb 8, 2014 at 8:09
  • 16
    Instead of adjustments to \extrarowheight just modify \arraystretch, e.g. by \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}.
    – Thorsten Donig
    Feb 8, 2014 at 8:21
  • 12
    @Werner This question has one of the clearest titles I've ever seen. What's the need to close it after a year?
    – karlkoeller
    Mar 16, 2015 at 8:42

4 Answers 4

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47

Use package easytable

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[thinlines]{easytable}
\begin{document}

\begin{TAB}(r,1cm,2cm)[5pt]{|c|c|}{|c|c|c|}% (rows,min,max)[tabcolsep]{columns}{rows}
hi & tall one    \\
hi & medium one  \\
hi & standard one\\
\end{TAB}

\end{document}

enter image description here

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5
178

To increase the row height in a table you can either increase the \extrarowheight through something like

\setlength\extrarowheight{5pt}

or stretch the row through something like

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}

as Thorsten Donig points out in the above comment.

IMHO, the best way to increase the height and keep the vertical alignment is to add the space when you break the row with \\, for example with \\[5pt].

This is an example (I've exaggerated a little with 50pt here)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}

\newcolumntype{M}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{#1}}
\newcolumntype{N}{@{}m{0pt}@{}}


\begin{document}

\begin{table}[ht]
\begin{tabular}{|M{4cm}|M{4cm}|N}
\hline
\textbf{Text} & \textbf{Text} &\\[50pt]
\hline
text & text&\\[50pt]
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Note that I've added a column as the last one defined as @{}m{0pt}@{} to avoid the issue described here: Vertical alignment in table: m-column, row size - problem in last column.

Output

enter image description here

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    I prefer the \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}. I did not see how to use the other method and still set the horizontal alignment, i.e., l/c/r.
    – Steven C. Howell
    Nov 12, 2015 at 2:50
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    @stvn66 For left alignment, define \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}m{#1}} and, for right, \newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}m{#1}}
    – Sterry
    Dec 21, 2015 at 18:32
  • Unfortunately, the author-preferred solution doesn't work at all, at least not on my machine. 112 upvotes got me and I tried to incorporate this thing without trying. I hope that other people see this comment before trying it out in their work, and try the solution to see if it works at all, despite >100 votes on it.
    – Utkan Gezer
    Dec 1, 2018 at 21:43
  • Using \newcolumntype{N}{@{}m{0pt}@{}} to create an extra 'null' cell is an ingenious idea. Works well
    – V-Red
    Aug 2, 2019 at 19:51
  • This is great: \\[5pt]
    – Firebug
    May 25, 2020 at 14:28
115

Super Simple Solution

I faced similar problem, & found a (not so conventional but) simple way to solve it. Wish, it will help others too.

I had a table like this-

\begin{tabular}{c|ccc}
$x$ & 1 & 2 & 3\\ \hline
$f(x)$ & 1 & 2 & 3
\end{tabular}

And, I wanted to put some extra space before the second row-

enter image description here

So, I inserted an extra empty line-

\begin{tabular}{c|ccc}
$x$ & 1 & 2 & 3\\ \hline 
\\
$f(x)$ & 1 & 2 & 3
\end{tabular}

But, now I had put too much space there-

enter image description here

So, I used negative line spacing to reduce it-

\begin{tabular}{c|ccc}
$x$ & 1 & 2 & 3\\ \hline 
\\[-1em]
$f(x)$ & 1 & 2 & 3
\end{tabular}

Great! everything was perfect-

enter image description here

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  • 22
    I really like this solution because it's simple and easy to control. One note is that if you have vertical lines between your other columns you have to add "&&&" as many times as it takes so that the vertical lines connect down.
    – MsTiggy
    Jul 23, 2016 at 22:38
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    To complete the comment above: avoid disconnection of multiple vertical lines by using: &&&\\[-1em]
    – hanna
    Mar 10, 2018 at 22:50
  • I appreciate this very simple answer, but it resulted in gaps in the vertical lines separating columns. How do I fix this?
    – sodiumnitrate
    Mar 14, 2018 at 20:25
  • The arraystretch solution keeps the vertical bars looking normal: tex.stackexchange.com/a/31681/192461
    – Karim Sonbol
    Feb 27, 2020 at 13:49
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    Has anyone noticed the double (thicker) vertical line on the second row? This solution may be easy but far from elegant and perfect...
    – Rusty Gear
    Dec 10, 2020 at 12:52
27

Use \rule{0pt}{value} to change the single row height to value.

Source

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