Latex custom table with different border colors

Question

I wanted to write the code for this specific table in Latex (the image just above). I want to define the width of the table borders, the color of the table borders and also the white space between the two cells. I also wanted the text to be horizontally and vertically centered.

I tried something like this :

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tabularx, graphicx}


\definecolor{green}{RGB}{0,255,0}
\definecolor{blue}{RGB}{0,0,255}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\arrayrulewidth}{1mm}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{2}

\noindent
\begin{table}[h!]
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
        \arrayrulecolor{green}
        \begin{tabular}{|>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{5cm}|}
        \hline
         \color{green} GREEN \\
         \hline
        \end{tabular}
    & 
        \arrayrulecolor{blue}
        \begin{tabular}{|>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{5cm}|}
        \hline
             \color{blue} BLUE \\
        \hline
            \end{tabular}
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}



\end{document}

I edited my code, it works, but I have a warning that I can't suppress : "You have used a \hline command in the wrong place, probably outside a table. If the \hline command is written inside a table, try including \ before it."

It seems that I can't change the border's color inside a table.

Answer 1

You wouldn't necessarily need a table for this. You could place two boxes horizontally next to each other with a white space of your size:

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

\begin{document}
{%
  \centering
  \setlength\fboxrule{1mm}   % Line width 
  \setlength\fboxsep{6pt}    % Padding       
  \fcolorbox{Green}{Green!5}{%  or white instead of the tint Green!5
    \parbox{4cm}{\centering\textcolor{Green}{GREEN}}}%
  \hspace{2em}%A
  \fcolorbox{Blue}{Blue!5}{%
    \parbox{4cm}{\centering\textcolor{Blue}{BLUE}}}
\par}
\end{document}

---

Alternatively, you could use tikz and have a few more options, for example rounded corners. However, you would need to learn tikz, which is a huge package with extra modules and might be a little scary at first.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\newcommand\boxtext{Sample sample sample sample sample sample sample}

\tikzset{
  box/.style = {
    draw,
    line width = 1mm,
    color=#1, fill=#1!5,
    align=center, text width=4cm, font=\normalfont,
    inner sep=6pt+1mm, outer sep=0pt,
    rounded corners,
  },
}


\begin{document}
{%
  \centering
  \tikz[node distance = 2em] {
    \node (G) [box=Green] {\boxtext};
    \node (B) [box=Blue, right=of G] {\boxtext};}
  \par}
\end{document}

Answer 2

As a workaround, you can use {NiceTabular} of nicematrix for the small tabular in the second cell of your main tabular. The environment {NiceTabular} has its own key for the colors of the rules.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tabularx, graphicx}
\usepackage{nicematrix}


\definecolor{green}{RGB}{0,255,0}
\definecolor{blue}{RGB}{0,0,255}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\arrayrulewidth}{1mm}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{2}

\noindent
\begin{table}[h!]
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
        \arrayrulecolor{green}
        \begin{tabular}{|>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{5cm}|}
        \hline
         \color{green} GREEN \\
         \hline
        \end{tabular}
    & 
        \begin{NiceTabular}{|>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{5cm}|}[rules/color=blue]
        \hline
             \color{blue} BLUE \\
        \hline
        \end{NiceTabular}
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

You need several compilations (because nicematrix uses PGF/Tikz nodes under the hood).

Answer 3

Here is my solution using hhline and colortbl.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hhline,colortbl}

%New column type so that text is centered
\newcolumntype{M}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{#1}}

%Custom colors if needed
\definecolor{green}{RGB}{0,255,0}
\definecolor{blue}{RGB}{0,0,255}


\begin{document}

\setlength\arrayrulewidth{2pt} % thickness of table lines
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{2}  % horizontal spacing

%create a new hline called myhline with the colors needed
\newcommand\myhline[1]{%
\hhline{%
>{\arrayrulecolor {green}}%
#1|-% solid green colored line
>{}%
#1|~%  no line
>{\arrayrulecolor{blue}}%
|-#1%  solid blue colored line
}}


% start array
\begin{tabular}{
 !{\color{green}\vrule width 2pt } % vertical line color, line width
 M{5cm}  % custom column type, column width
 !{\color{green}\vrule width 2pt} 
 M{1cm}
 !{\color{blue}\vrule width 2pt}
 M{5cm}
 !{\color{blue}\vrule width 2pt}
}


\myhline{}% Draw custom line
\color{green} GREEN& &\color{blue} BLUE\\
\myhline{}% Draw custom line
\end{tabular}


\end{document}

Here is the result.

References:

Colortbl manual/guide

Hhline manual/guide

How to center column values in a table?

Answer 4

A tabularray solution is missing:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{tabularray}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h!]
    \centering
    \begin{tblr}{colspec={Q[c,m,5cm, fg=green]cQ[c,m,5cm, fg=blue]},
        hline{1-2}={1}{green, wd=1mm},
        vline{1-2}={green, wd=1mm},
        hline{1-2}={3}{blue, wd=1mm},
        vline{3-4}={blue, wd=1mm},
        rows={ht=1cm},stretch=0
        }
        GREEN && BLUE \\
    \end{tblr}
\end{table}
\end{document}