Show skills/knowledge with flat rectangles in resume

Question

I would like to restructure my "knowledge" part in the resume (skill level). From the structure I would like to make it similar to this one, only with "flat" rectangles: In-line graphics in text to represent a loading

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to adjust the points to a flat rectangle.

Secondly, I'm still a bit undecided which variant it should be (I need to see it in the finished resume first - but guess it will be variant 2):

Variant 1:

Variant 2:

I would have tried to define the individual rectangles by means of coordinates, i.e. to predefine them "fixed".

For example by means of:

\begin{tikzpicture}

\coordinate (Level1_Start) at (0,2.3);
\coordinate (Level1_14) at (0.5,2.3);       %Level 1 - 1/4
\coordinate (Level1_12) at (1,2.3);         %Level 1 - 1/2
\coordinate (Level1_34) at (1.5,2.3);       %Level 1 - 3/4
\coordinate (Level1_End) at (2,2.3);

\coordinate (Level2_Start) at (2.5,2.3);
\coordinate (Level2_14) at (3,2.3);         %Level 2 - 1/4
\coordinate (Level2_12) at (3.5,2.3);       %Level 2 - 1/2
\coordinate (Level2_34) at (4,2.3);         %Level 2 - 3/4
\coordinate (Level2_End) at (4.5,2.3);


\coordinate (A) at (Level1_Start);
\coordinate (B) at (Level1_14);
\coordinate (C) at (Level1_12);
\coordinate (D) at (Level1_34);
\coordinate (E) at (Level1_End);

\draw[red!50,  line width=6pt] (A) -- (E);  %Draw Level 1 from start to end (6pt red)

\coordinate (A) at (Level2_Start);
\coordinate (B) at (Level2_14);
\coordinate (C) at (Level2_12);
\coordinate (D) at (Level2_34);
\coordinate (E) at (Level2_End);

\draw[red!50,  line width=6pt] (A) -- (B);  %Draw Level 2 from start to 1/4 (6pt red)
\draw[gray!50, line width=4pt] (B) -- (E);  %Draw Level 2 from 1/4 to end (4pt gray)

%and so on
\end{tikzpicture}

With the skills/names etc. I would have done it similarly.

Is there a nicer, more elegant solution for this?

Answer 1

Here's a suggestion which uses a very specific dash pattern. The gray part is drawn first over the full length which will be covered partly by the red part.

The red part is also the more interesting one, for this I set x to the value of one single bar length so that we can use #2 directly as the x value of a coordinate. However, we need to add the separation space again which is done by the way of xshift.

You can use the values skill bar width, skill bar items and skill bar sep to change the way the values are getting interpreted and drawn.
The styles skill bar, skill bar bg and skill bar fg can be used to change the visualization (other colors, other line widths).

The trim left and trim right key instruct TikZ to produce a diagram that is exactly \linewidth wide. The baseline key is used to align the diagrams vertically and might be adjusted based on which font you actually use.

---

By default, \tikzskillbar uses a width of \linewidth. This allows it to be used inside a X column of tabularx or any other tabular column with a fixed length (i.e. p, m or b).

I've added loop that shows all steps (though, you can always use any number between 0 and skill bar items).

The subtraction of .00001 avoids rendering issues with integer values since this might lead to slivers of red:

---

The red part can also be drawn in separate parts with this definition of \tikzskillbar (different x value and disabled skill bar style):

\newcommand*\tikzskillbar[2][]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[
  skill bar diagram,#1,skill bar diagram init,
  x=\tsbbarlength+\tsbseplength,skill bar/.code=]
\draw[skill bar bg, dash pattern=on \tsbbarlength off \tsbseplength]
  (0,0) -- (\linewidth,0);
\foreach[parse=true] \step in {0,...,(int(#2)-1)}
  \draw[skill bar fg] (right:\step) -- ++(right:\tsbbarlength);
\draw[skill bar fg] (right:{int(#2-.00001)})
  --++(right:{\tsbbarlength*frac(#2)});
\end{tikzpicture}}

Code

\documentclass[a5paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\tikzset{
  skill bar width/.initial=\linewidth,
  skill bar items/.initial=5,
  skill bar sep/.initial=1mm,
  skill bar diagram/.style={baseline=+-.75ex,trim left=+0pt},
  skill bar diagram init/.style={
    trim right=\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar width},
    /utils/exec=%
    \pgfmathsetlengthmacro\tsbseplength{\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar sep}}%
    \pgfmathsetlengthmacro\tsbbarlength{%
      (\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar width}-(\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar items}-1)
     *(\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar sep}))/(\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar items})}},
  skill bar/.style={dash pattern=on \tsbbarlength off \tsbseplength},
  skill bar bg/.style={skill bar, draw=gray, line width=2pt},
  skill bar fg/.style={skill bar, draw=red,  line width=6pt}}
\newcommand*\tikzskillbar[2][]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[skill bar diagram,#1,skill bar diagram init,x=\tsbbarlength]
\draw[skill bar bg](0,0)--(right:{\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar width}});
\draw[skill bar fg](0,0)
  --++([xshift={int(#2-.00001)*\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/skill bar sep}}]right:{#2});
\end{tikzpicture}}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\newenvironment*{skilltab}{\tabularx{\linewidth}{@{}lX@{}}}{\endtabularx}
\begin{document}
\section*{Knowledge}
\subsection*{Language}
\begin{skilltab}
  German  & \tikzskillbar{4.5}   \\
  English & \tikzskillbar{3.75}
\end{skilltab}

\subsection*{IT}
\begin{skilltab}
  Word       & \tikzskillbar{4.5}  \\
  Excel      & \tikzskillbar{3}    \\
  Powerpoint & \tikzskillbar{2.25}
\end{skilltab}

\vspace{1em}
\foreach \STEP in {0, ..., 12}{%
  \noindent\tikzskillbar[
    skill bar width=3cm, skill bar sep=.5mm, skill bar items=3]{\STEP/4}\par}
\end{document}

Output

Answer 2

Welcome to TeX.SE!!!

This creates a TikZ macro that draws the desired rectangles and \clips the red ones.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum} % dummy text
\usepackage{tikz}   % beautiful drawings

\newcommand{\level}[1]
{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=1.6,yscale=0.4]
    \pgfmathsetmacro\xmax{#1+0.25*int(#1)}
    \foreach\i in {0,...,4}
      \fill[gray] (1.25*\i em,0.25ex) rectangle ++(1em,0.75ex);
    \clip         (0em,-0.75ex)       rectangle ++(\xmax em,2.75ex);
    \foreach\i in {0,...,4}
      \fill[red] (1.25*\i em,-0.25ex) rectangle ++(1em,1.75ex);
  \end{tikzpicture}%  
}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{table}[ht]\centering
\begin{tabular}{ll}
Word       & \level{4.5}\\
Excel      & \level{3}\\
Powerpoint & \level{2.25}
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\lipsum[2]
\end{document}