Rounded corners, dotted lines and shadow inline but without TikZ

Question

I'm trying to draw rounded rectangles with solid or dotted lines and a shadow around arbitrary text in LaTeX. I was hopeful that my answer was in How to draw rounded corners around box with shadow, but those don't work for me because both tcolorbox and mdframed want a new environment, and I want to keep the rounded rectangles inline like \fbox does.

Right now I'm using the following TikZ code:

\newcommand{\solidButton}[1]{\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(char.base)]
  \node(char)[draw,rounded corners=0.75mm,fill=white,
    shape=rectangle, inner ysep=3pt, inner xsep=2pt,
    drop shadow={opacity=.6,shadow xshift=2pt, shadow yshift=-1pt},
    minimum width=0.6cm, minimum height=0.35cm]
    {#1};
\end{tikzpicture}}

\newcommand{\dottedButton}[1]{\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(char.base)]
  \node(char)[draw,dotted,rounded corners=0.75mm,fill=white,
    shape=rectangle, inner ysep=3pt, inner xsep=2pt,
    drop shadow={opacity=.6,shadow xshift=2pt, shadow yshift=-1pt},
    minimum width=0.6cm, minimum height=0.35cm]
    {#1};
\end{tikzpicture}}

This looks the way I'd like it to:

... but all the TikZ (I use it 10-20 times/page) is making my document really slow to compile. Is there a more efficient way to do what I want?

Answer 1

This solution is completely without TikZ, only pict2e, which is almost pure LaTeX picture mode.

If this is not speeder, there is no hope.

P.S. = David Carlisle will be proud of me.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{pict2e}

\newlength{\myww}
\newlength{\mystep}
\setlength{\mystep}{1.8pt}
\newcommand{\solidButton}[1]{%
    \settowidth{\myww}{#1}%
    \addtolength{\myww}{4pt}%
    \begin{picture}(\myww,14)%
      \def\mypath{\moveto(2,-3)
      \circlearc{2}{-1}{2}{-90}{-180}
      \lineto(0,8)
      \circlearc{2}{8}{2}{180}{90}
      \lineto(\myww-2,10)
      \circlearc{\myww-2}{8}{2}{90}{0}
      \lineto(\myww,0)
      \circlearc{\myww-2}{-1}{2}{0}{-90}
      \lineto(2,-3)}%
      \hspace{2pt}\raisebox{-1pt}{\color{lightgray}\mypath%
      \fillpath}%
      \hspace{-2pt}{\color{white}\mypath%
      \fillpath}%
      {\color{black}%
      \mypath\strokepath%
      \put(2,0){#1}}%   
    \end{picture}%
    }
\newcommand{\dottedButton}[1]{%
    \settowidth{\myww}{#1}%
    \addtolength{\myww}{4pt}%
    \begin{picture}(\myww,14)%
      \def\mypath{\moveto(2,-3)
      \circlearc{2}{-1}{2}{-90}{-180}
      \lineto(0,8)
      \circlearc{2}{8}{2}{180}{90}
      \lineto(\myww-2,10)
      \circlearc{\myww-2}{8}{2}{90}{0}
      \lineto(\myww,0)
      \circlearc{\myww-2}{-1}{2}{0}{-90}
      \lineto(2,-3)}%
      \hspace{2pt}\raisebox{-1pt}{\color{lightgray}\mypath%
      \fillpath}%
      \hspace{-2pt}{\color{white}\mypath%
      \fillpath}%
      \color{black}%
      \put(0.6,-2.4){\circle{.3}}
      \put(0.6,9.4){\circle{.3}}  
      \put(\myww-.6,-2.4){\circle{.3}}
      \put(\myww-.6,9.4){\circle{.3}}
      \multiput(0,-1)(0,\mystep){6}{\circle{.3}}
      \multiput(\myww,-1)(0,\mystep){6}{\circle{.3}}
      \multiput(2,10)(\mystep,0){\numexpr\myww/\mystep-1\relax}{\circle{.3}}
      \multiput(2,-3)(\mystep,0){\numexpr\myww/\mystep-1\relax}{\circle{.3}}
      \put(2,0){#1}%   
    \end{picture}%
    }
\begin{document}
This is a solid box
\solidButton{Solid Button}
This is a solid box
\solidButton{ppp}
This is a solid box 
\solidButton{vvv}
This is a solid box 
\solidButton{ddd}
This is a solid box 

This is a dotted box 
\dottedButton{Dotted Button}
This is a dotted box
\dottedButton{ppp}
This is a dotted box
\dottedButton{vvv}
This is a dotted box
\dottedButton{ddd}
This is a dotted box
\end{document}

Answer 2

You can use pgf. Since pgf is a sublayer of tikz, it will be faster.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{pgf}

\newcommand{\solidButton}[1]{%
  \setbox0\hbox{#1}%
  \begin{pgfpicture}
  \pgfset{inner ysep=3pt, inner xsep=2pt, minimum height = 0.35cm, minimum width=0.6cm }
  \pgfsetbaseline{0pt}
  \pgfsetcornersarced{\pgfpoint{0.75mm}{0.75mm}}
  \pgftransformshift{\pgfpoint{2pt}{-1pt}}
  \pgfsetfillcolor{gray!60}
  \pgfnode{rectangle}{base}{\copy0}{}{\pgfusepath{fill}}
  \pgftransformshift{\pgfpoint{-2pt}{1pt}}
  \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpointorigin}
  \pgfsetfillcolor{white}
  \pgfnode{rectangle}{base}{\box0}{}{\pgfusepath{fill,stroke}}
  \end{pgfpicture}%
  }

\newcommand{\dottedButton}[1]{%
  \setbox0\hbox{#1}%
  \begin{pgfpicture}
  \pgfset{inner ysep=3pt, inner xsep=2pt, minimum height = 0.35cm, minimum width=0.6cm }
  \pgfsetbaseline{0pt}
  \pgfsetcornersarced{\pgfpoint{0.75mm}{0.75mm}}
  \pgftransformshift{\pgfpoint{2pt}{-1pt}}
  \pgfsetfillcolor{gray!60}
  \pgfnode{rectangle}{base}{\copy0}{}{\pgfusepath{fill}}
  \pgftransformshift{\pgfpoint{-2pt}{1pt}}
  \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpointorigin}
  \pgfsetfillcolor{white}
  \pgfsetdash{{0.1mm}{0.2mm}}{0cm}% line added
  \pgfnode{rectangle}{base}{\box0}{}{\pgfusepath{fill,stroke}}
  \end{pgfpicture}%
  }


\begin{document}
This is a solid box
\solidButton{Solid Button}
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box 

This is a dotted box 
\dottedButton{Dotted Button}
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box

\end{document}

Answer 3

With tcolorbox, you can define your own boxes.

Unfortunately, as user3486184 commented, this is not speeder than TikZ.

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{skins}
\tcbset{    
    enhanced,
    tcbox raise base,
    nobeforeafter, 
    colback=white,
    top=0pt,
    bottom=0pt,
    left=0pt,
    right=0pt,
    arc=2pt,
    }
\newtcbox{\solidButton}{
    colframe=black,
    boxrule=.5pt,
    shadow={1.6pt}{-.8pt}{0pt}{lightgray},
    }
\newtcbox{\dottedButton}{
    colframe=white,
    boxrule=0pt,
    borderline={.6pt}{0pt}{black, dotted},
    shadow={1.8pt}{-.8pt}{0pt}{lightgray},
    }

\begin{document}
This is a solid box
\solidButton{Solid Button}
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box
This is a solid box 

This is a dotted box 
\dottedButton{Dotted Button}
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box
This is a dotted box

\end{document}

Answer 4

This is more of an extended comment than an answer.

I can think of three ways to approach this.

1. Simplify the path generation. You have a suggestion in another answer to use pgf code directly instead of tikz, but even that could be simplified further. You don't need the full structure of a node here, you just need to measure the hbox containing the text and use that to draw a path. Taking it to extremes, you could even have the code generate the PDF literals directly.

2. Generate each path once and once only. There are a variety of ways to do this. At one extreme you could externalise each individual box (with its contents). At the other, you simply save each path once it has been created to the aux file (my spath3 library can do this), so you still have the expense of rendering it but none of the computation.

3. Only render the boxes when you're done with the document. So you have a draft mode in place when you are writing the document in which the boxes aren't drawn, and only switch them on when the document itself is in place. This follows the TeX paradigm of separating style and content. It's probably the easiest solution and certainly if it is for only one document then simplicity is also a strong factor in this one.