Table growing with content and automated line break

Question

I would like to have a tabular or something similar with one cell and the following behavior:

• The cell grows vertically and horizontally to fit the content of the cell but no more than \linewidth
• The lines break instead of going out of the cell or the cell itself growing bigger than the page

So far I've only found two partial solutions :

• Using a simple tabular with p{.?\textwidth} to ensure line breaks and vertical grow but that does not provides me with a box growing horizontally
• Using a simple tabular with l, r or c to ensure automated horizontal grow

If you wonder why I want a single cell table, its because I need some sort of "box" that can have borders and a background color.

Answer 1

You could set the cell content in a varwidth environment (from the varwidth package). Here's a minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{varwidth}% http://ctan.org/pkg/varwidth
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}% Just for this example
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|l|}
  \hline
  \begin{varwidth}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}
  \strut some text.
  \end{varwidth} \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{|l|}
  \hline
  \begin{varwidth}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}
  \strut Quite a lot more text than in the first table.
  \end{varwidth} \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{|l|}
  \hline
  \begin{varwidth}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}
    \strut Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur non eros in sem blandit 
    scelerisque vitae ac velit. Etiam turpis mi, tincidunt adipiscing tincidunt nec, laoreet quis 
    metus. Nulla ut est eu odio tempus vulputate. Donec blandit tincidunt leo sit amet ultricies. 
    Maecenas commodo nunc in felis pulvinar elementum. In sapien metus, adipiscing dictum sollicitudin 
    ac, interdum et leo. Phasellus suscipit mi sed purus euismod molestie. Class aptent taciti sociosqu 
    ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.\strut
  \end{varwidth} \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The use of \strut is encouraged as minipages tend to strip the appropriate depth/height of the last/first line of the text block.

Answer 2

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand\mybox[1]{%
  \setbox0\hbox{#1}%
  \ifdim\wd0<\textwidth
    \usebox0
  \else
    \noindent\parbox\textwidth{#1}
  \fi}

\def\x{a b c d e f g h i j k l m}
\begin{document}

\parindent0pt

\fbox{\mybox{a b c}}

\fbox{\mybox{\x. \x \x}}

\fbox{\mybox{\x. \x \x. \x \x

\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x\x}}

\end{document}

Answer 3

For a box with a colored background and frame, use \fcolorbox:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{varwidth}

\newcommand{\mycolorbox}[1]{{%
    \fboxrule 2pt
    \fcolorbox{Navy!80}{DarkKhaki}{%
        \begin{varwidth}{0.8\linewidth}%
                \strut#1%
        \end{varwidth}%
    }}}

\begin{document}
\mycolorbox{Hello, world!}
\end{document}