A box with two texts, one in center and another at the top or bottom using standard LaTeX without packages

Question

I want to place two texts in a box with dimensions of 100*\textwidth, one in the center and one at the top or bottom using standard LaTeX without packages. I achieved this using tabular as follow:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\begin{document}
    
    \begin{center}
        \fbox{
            \parbox{\textwidth}{
                \centering\begin{tabular}{c}
                    \textbf{\large }\\[2cm]
                    \textbf{\huge This is a title}\\[2cm]
                    \textbf{\large This is a small text}
                \end{tabular}
            }
        }
    \end{center}
    
\end{document}

I want to know is there a simpler way for this? e.g. using \parbox and \raisebox? I tried to generate it using \parbox, but after adding the second text, the center text no longer stays centered. same problem using vbox (I know how to fix it using \phantom or \setbox but I am looking for a clean way)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\begin{document}
    \fbox{ 
        \centering\vbox{\vskip 2cm
            \mbox{\textbf{\huge This is a title}}
            \vskip 2cm
            \mbox{\textbf{\large This is a subheading}}
        }
    }
\end{document}

Answer 1

Picture mode (it's not just for aircraft):

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}


\noindent X\dotfill X

\noindent X\dotfill X

  \noindent
  \begin{picture}(0,100pt)
  \put(0,0){\framebox(\textwidth,100pt){\Large\bfseries This is a title}}
  \put(0,0){\makebox(\textwidth,100pt)[b]{\strut\small this is small text}}
  \end{picture}


\noindent X\dotfill X


\end{document}

Answer 2

If you want to create this with \parbox you should use the optional arguments of that macro to specify a target height and fill method. You can then wrap an \fbox around:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\fbox
  {%
    \parbox[b][5cm][s]{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}
      {%
        \centering
        \vfil
        {\bfseries\Large This is a title\par}%
        \vfil
        {\bfseries This is small text\par}%
      }%
  }
\end{document}

---

To get the text perfectly vertically centred, the easiest solution is to just put the same contents as at the bottom of the box at its top, but invisibly.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\fbox
  {%
    \parbox[b][5cm][s]{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}
      {%
        \centering
        \phantom{{\bfseries This is small text}}\par
        \vfil
        {\bfseries\Large This is a title\par}%
        \vfil
        {\bfseries This is small text\par}%
      }%
  }
\end{document}

Answer 3

The following is using primitive TeX (except for \centering, \bfseries, \strut, and \Large, well, and \documentclass{article}, \begin{document} and \end{document}). This answer is meant to be educational and not for productive use in a LaTeX document.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\vbox
  {%
    \hrule
    \noindent
    \vrule
    \vbox to 5cm
      {%
        \advance\hsize-.8pt % compensate for the two \vrule
        \centering
        \vfil
        {\bfseries\Large This is a title\strut\par}%
        \vfil
        {\bfseries This is small text\strut\par}%
      }%
    \vrule
    \hrule
  }
\end{document}

An even more stripped down version, getting rid of \centering (the shown code is not 100% equivalent to LaTeX's \centering), and getting the text vertically centred:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\vbox
  {%
    \hrule
    \noindent
    \vrule
    \vbox to 5cm
      {%
        \advance\hsize-.8pt % compensate for the two \vrule
        \leftskip=0pt plus 1fil
        \rightskip=0pt plus 1fil
        \parfillskip=0pt
        \parindent=0pt
        \setbox0\vbox{\bfseries This is small text\strut\par}%
        \vrule height \ht0 depth \dp0 width 0pt
        \vfil
        {\bfseries\Large This is a title\strut\par}%
        \vfil
        \box0
      }%
    \vrule
    \hrule
  }
\end{document}

Answer 4

e.g. using \parbox and \raisebox?

Well, if simpler it is debatable, but you can place the title in a mini page to centre it vertically and horizontally in the box, and then use \raisebox to set other text somewhere without affecting the title position. The bad news is that the exact position of the bottom or top text is up to you.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
{\bfseries\centering\large 
\noindent\fcolorbox{blue}{cyan!05}{%
\begin{minipage}[c][5cm][c]{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}
\centering\huge This is a title
\end{minipage}}
\raisebox{.5cm}[0pt][0pt]{This is a small text at bottom}\par
\raisebox{5cm}[-5cm][-6cm]{This is a small text at top}\par}
\lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{document}

Answer 5

Here is a Tikz-way to do it, i.e. using the Tikz package:

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
 Just in case \dots\ 
 \tikz{
    \node[draw,font={\huge\bfseries},inner sep=25mm] (A) {This is a title};
    \node[anchor=south,font={\large}]       at (A.south) {This is small text};}
 \dots\ you liked some text here.
\end{document}

where:

• \tikz{ ... } is a shortform for a tikzpicture environment
• think of \node as a label you can place
• [draw,font={\huge\bfseries},inner sep=25mm] draws the shape; using inner sep is just one possibility to vary shapes size
• name the first \node[...] (A) {...};
• place the second node relative to it, i.e. anchor it south (middle bottom) at A's south
• in a simple case like this you don't need to explicitely state coordinates, like \node[...] (A) at (0,0) {...};
• I put some inline text for reference