[Tex/LaTex] Contour around multi-line tikz text

tikz-pgf

I am trying to produce a text inside a node which has a contour. Problem is: when using contour, text width seems to be ignored, so I can not use auto multi-line text.

I discovered contours in tikz halo around text, and I can use it correctly as in:

\draw (0, 0) node {\contour{white}{A very long title that we mean to split on multiple lines}};

but when adding text width it is not multi-lined:

\draw (0, 0) node[text width=5cm] {\contour{white}{A very long title that we mean to split on multiple lines}};

And without contour it works correctly:

\draw (0, 0) node[text width=5cm] {A very long title that we mean to split on multiple lines};

How can I fix this?

Best Answer

Judging from the output of the pdfrender package, it seems that it does the same as the following TikZ code (which is coded as the opposite of optimal) and as the contour package.

Code

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{shadows}
\tikzset{
    text shadow/.code args={[#1]#2at#3(#4)#5}{
        \pgfkeysalso{/tikz/.cd,#1}%
        \foreach \angle in {0,5,...,359}{
                \node[#1,text=white] at ([shift={(\angle:.5pt)}] #4){#5};
        }
    }
}
\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \fill[gray, step=.5mm] (-1.6,-1) rectangle (1.6,1);
    \node[
        text shadow={[align=center,text width=3cm] at (0,0) {A very long title that we mean to split on multiple lines \ldots}}]
                                      at (0,0) {A very long title that we mean to split on multiple lines \ldots};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to put a coloured outline around fraction lines

Knuth in the TeXBook gave an example of "poor man's bold," (The TeXbook, p. 386) which can be typeset obtained by overprinting the normal weight symbol with slight offsets.

As he says:

The results are somewhat fuzzy, and they certainly are no match for the real thing if it's available; but poor man's bold is better than nothing, and once in a while you can get away with it.

Here, one can use a similar technique and the code is shown below:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx,xcolor} 
\usepackage{amsmath}
\def\PoorManContour#1#2#3{\leavevmode
    \setbox0=\hbox{{#1}}%
    \color{#3}\kern-.002em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{#3}\raise-.04em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{#3}\lower.04em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{#3}\raise0.04em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{#2}\raise-.012em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{#2}\kern.06em\copy0\kern-\wd0
    \color{blue}\kern-.020em\lower.003em\box0
}
\begin{document}
\colorbox{gray!5}{\scalebox{5}{\PoorManContour{$\sqrt{\dfrac{A^3_i}{B^2}}$}{gray!60}{gray!60}}}
\end{document}

To achieve the best results possible one has to kern in small steps for possibly twenty steps or so. For simplicity, I have not done that. In the final version, you need to adjust the colors to suit, possibly changing the shading to white.

alt text

Edit

After reading Jan's comment below I read the manual and true, as the commenter said the easiest way to achieve what the OP wanted is to include the package without an option i.e., \usepackage{contour}. Helps to RFM!

[Tex/LaTex] New line in pgfplots/tikz not displaying in TeX

Updated

According to @Jake's comment, adding the key [align=left] will allow one to type multiple lines in the legend (I guess this is the same for entering multi-line texts in a TikZ node):

\addlegendentry[align=left]{
  $\text{R}_\text{Darcy,pwr}=[1.26 \times 10^{10},\; 3.76\times 10^9]$ \\
  $\text{(1/m)MAE}=1.14\times 10^{-2} \text{ (g/min)}$
}

A working example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
  legend style={at={(1.1,-0.1)},
  cells={anchor=west}, % left-align cell content
}]

\addplot coordinates {(0,0) (1,1)};
\addlegendentry{$\downarrow\Delta P$, 1$^{st}$ cycle}

\addplot coordinates {(0,1) (1,2)};
\addlegendentry{DGM $\delta'_{\text{air}}=4.8\times 10^{-8}$ m-kPa}

\addplot coordinates {(0,2) (1,3)};
\addlegendentry[align=left]{
  $\text{R}_\text{Darcy,pwr}=[1.26 \times 10^{10},\; 3.76\times 10^9]$ \\
  $\text{(1/m)MAE}=1.14\times 10^{-2} \text{ (g/min)}$
}

\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}