You can use TikZ
with the overlay
option and a correct anchor. That would look like this:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand\mybox[2][]{\tikz[overlay]\node[fill=blue!20,inner sep=2pt, anchor=text, rectangle, rounded corners=1mm,#1] {#2};\phantom{#2}}
\begin{document}
\noindent
this is some text \mybox[fill=blue!20]{box} text\\
this is some text box text
\end{document}
You can specify extra options (like I have done here for the color). By using the overlay
option and the text
anchor we ensure correct placement and no influence on spacing. The phantom
is added to get the normal spacing for the content of the box. This is the result of the example code:

Edit: To show that the vertical spacing is not affected either, consider the following:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand\mybox[2][]{\tikz[overlay]\node[fill=blue!20,inner sep=2pt, anchor=text, rectangle, rounded corners=1mm,#1] {#2};\phantom{#2}}
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
\noindent
this is some text \mybox[fill=blue!20]{box} text\\
this is some text box text
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
\noindent
this is some text box text\\
this is some text box text
\end{minipage}
\end{document}
Which results in:

If you don't care much about the frame, you could use \fbox{The Problem}
and set the spacing by setting the length \fboxsep
:
%the classica behaviour
\fbox{The problem}
%saving the default length to modify it and restore it
\newlength{\fboxsepsave}
\setlength{\fboxsepsave}{\fboxsep}
\setlength{\fboxsep}{1cm}
\fbox{The problem}
%restoring the length back to normal
\setlength{\fboxsep}{\fboxsepsave}
\fbox{The problem}
If you would like more control on the box, I suggest you use tools like the nodes in tikz
, using the inner sep
parameter to control the spacing.
Best Answer
I'm pretty sure that the font formatting options contains some basic mistakes but here is an attempt to make simple title page.
which gives:
I didn't understand quite the last sentence in which you wrote around the title, but I hope I got it right.
By the way, I would like to mention whenever I can that I am looking forward to the highly anticipated work of Altermundus, pgfvectorian package, on carrying ornaments of psvectorian goodies to TikZ/PGF, (I think it is a wonderful attempt to even consider it). So we can even put more beautiful stuff instead of plain boxes (not that it is ugly but it's always to have moar options).
EDIT A simple macro to have some more automation