[Tex/LaTex] Gradient fill around section headings

gradientmarginssectioningtikz-pgftitlesec

Trying to make a document that has gradient fill around section titles, that are not effected by margins, as such:
enter image description here

I managed to get the gradient effect but I can't figure out how to get it to start from the leftmost part of the page. I get this:

enter image description here

with this code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[explicit]{titlesec}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,shadows,calc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[hmargin=0.5in,bmargin=1in,tmargin=1in,centering]{geometry}

\definecolor{gray}{RGB}{236,236,236}

\newcommand\SecTitle[4]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[inner xsep=0pt,minimum height=3cm,text width=0.7\textwidth,
      align=left,left color=gray,right color=white, signal to=#1,font=\Huge,anchor=#2] 
          at (#3,0) {#4};
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
%\titleformat{command}[shape]{format}{label}{sep}{before-code}{after-code}
\titleformat{\section}
{\normalfont}{}{0em}
{\SecTitle{east}{west}{0\paperwidth}{#1}}

\begin{document}

\section{Test Section One}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Two}
\lipsum[2]
\clearpage
\section{Test Section Three}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Four}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

How do I extend the gradient fill to the left so it hits the edge of the page without effecting the margin of the text.
How do I indent the section heading so that there's space between the beginning of the gradient and the title.

Best Answer

Updated version

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,shadows,calc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[hmargin=0.5in,bmargin=1in,tmargin=1in,centering]{geometry}

\definecolor{gray}{RGB}{236,236,236}

% Distance between left side of node and title text
\newlength\TitleIndentLeft
% Distance between right side of node and title text
\newlength\TitleIndentRight
% Total width for the node
% the total width of the title is internally calculated
% as \TitleWidth-\TitleIndentLeft-\TitleIndentRight
\newlength\TitleWidth

\setlength\TitleIndentLeft{0.25in}
\setlength\TitleIndentRight{0pt}
\setlength\TitleWidth{\dimexpr\textwidth+0.5in\relax} % the node will
% start from the left margin and will extend to the right margin
% 0.5in is added since it's the value for the left margin of the document

\newcommand\SecTitle[1]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[
    outer sep=0pt,
    inner xsep=0pt,
    inner ysep=1cm,
    text width=\TitleWidth,
    align=left,
    left color=gray,
    right color=white,
    font=\Huge,
    anchor=west
  ] 
 at (0,0) 
 {%
   \parbox{\TitleIndentLeft}{\mbox{}}%
   \parbox{\dimexpr\textwidth-\TitleIndentLeft-\TitleIndentRight\relax}{\raggedright\strut#1\strut}%
   \parbox{\TitleIndentRight}{\mbox{}}%
 };
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
%\titleformat{command}[shape]{format}{label}{sep}{before-code}{after-code}
\titleformat{\section}
  {\normalfont}
  {}
  {-0.5in}% -0.5in here since it's the value for the left margin
  {\SecTitle}

\begin{document}

\section{Test Section One}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Two  with a Longer Title so that it Spans more than one Line}
\lipsum[2]

% Just for the example to illustrate the effect of the lengths controling the
% title alignment and length
\setlength\TitleIndentLeft{0.5in}
\section{Test Section Two  with a Longer Title so that it Spans more than one Line}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

enter image description here

Remarks:

I changed the definition for \SecTitle so it only uses one mandatory argument; in this way, it's not necessary to use the explicit option for titlesec.
I defined three auxiliary lengths to help control the total width for the node as well as the distance between the left, right borders of the node and the title:
```
% Distance between left side of node and title text
\newlength\TitleIndentLeft
% Distance between right side of node and title text
\newlength\TitleIndentRight
% Total width for the node
% the total width of the title is internally calculated
% as \TitleWidth-\TitleIndentLeft-\TitleIndentRight
\newlength\TitleWidth
```
Changing the values for those length, you can easily control the overhang for the title as well as the total width desired; in the example code above I illustrate this in the third section title.
Instead of using minimum height, I now use inner ysep so the box will adjust to longer titles and the vertical separation between the top/bottom of the text and the borders of the box will remain constant.

Initial versions:

Like this? (I was not sure about the desired horizontal shift for the title from the left margin, so based on the image posted I assumed it had to overhang a little, if this is not the case, let me know where exactly it should be to correct the positioning):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[explicit]{titlesec}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,shadows,calc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[hmargin=0.5in,bmargin=1in,tmargin=1in,centering]{geometry}

\definecolor{gray}{RGB}{236,236,236}

\newcommand\SecTitle[4]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[inner xsep=10pt,minimum height=3cm,text width=0.7\textwidth,
      align=left,left color=gray,right color=white, signal to=#1,font=\Huge,anchor=#2] 
          at (#3,0) {#4};
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
%\titleformat{command}[shape]{format}{label}{sep}{before-code}{after-code}
\titleformat{\section}
{\normalfont}{}{-3.5em}
{\SecTitle{east}{west}{0}{#1}}

\begin{document}

\section{Test Section One}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Two}
\lipsum[2]
\clearpage
\section{Test Section Three}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Four}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

enter image description here

It's not clear to me why so many arguments for \SecTitle if only the fourth one is really gonna be used as variable.

In fact, if just the last argument is to be really a variable used for the title, you can reduce the definition of \SecTitle to something like

\newcommand\SecTitle[1]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
  \node[inner xsep=10pt,minimum height=3cm,text width=0.7\textwidth,
      align=left,left color=gray,right color=white,font=\Huge,anchor=west] 
          at (current page.west|-0,0) {#1};
\end{tikzpicture}%
}

and this also avoids the use of explicit; notice that I also used

(current page.west|-0,0)

to position the node at the right location (flushed to the left margin) without having to guess lengths. The code (adjust the lengths according to your needs):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,shadows,calc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[hmargin=0.5in,bmargin=1in,tmargin=1in,centering]{geometry}

\definecolor{gray}{RGB}{236,236,236}

\newcommand\SecTitle[1]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
  \node[inner xsep=10pt,minimum height=3cm,text width=0.7\textwidth,
      align=left,left color=gray,right color=white,font=\Huge,anchor=west] 
          at (current page.west|-0,0) {#1};
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
%\titleformat{command}[shape]{format}{label}{sep}{before-code}{after-code}
\titleformat{\section}
  {\normalfont}
  {}
  {0em}
  {\SecTitle}
\titlespacing*{\section}
  {0pt}{53pt plus 1ex minus .2ex}{50pt plus .2ex}

\begin{document}

\section{Test Section One}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Two}
\lipsum[2]
\clearpage
\section{Test Section Three}
\lipsum[2]
\section{Test Section Four}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Section title gradient

This is relatively easy to achieve using the titlesec package:

\documentclass{scrbook}
\usepackage{tikz,titlesec}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}      % for a test document

\titleformat{\section}[block]%              
    {\usekomafont{sectioning}\usekomafont{section}%
     \tikz[overlay] \shade[left color=blue!20,right color=white] (0,-1ex) rectangle (\textwidth,1em);}%    
    {\thesection}%                   
    {1em}%
    {}

\begin{document}
\blinddocument 
\end{document}

example

Note the following:

\usekomafont{sectioning}\usekomafont{section} sets the font to whatever is chosen using the KOMA Script styling mechanism.
The [overlay] option of \tikz means that TikZ won't take any space.
This breaks if the title is longer than a line.

Edit: Here is second version, that works with long lines and does not ignore ascenders and descenders. The code is more complicated, though. It draws the whole section heading with TikZ.

\documentclass{scrbook}
\usepackage{tikz,titlesec}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\pgfdeclarelayer{background}
\pgfsetlayers{background,main}

\newcommand\boxedsection[1]{{%
    \usekomafont{sectioning}\usekomafont{section}%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[inner sep=0pt, inner ysep=0.3ex]
        \node[anchor=base west] at (0,0) (counter) {\thesection};
        \path let \p1 = (counter.base east) in node[anchor=base west, text width={\textwidth-\x1-0.33em}] (content) at ($(counter.base east)+(0.33em,0)$) {#1};
        \begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
            \shade[left color=blue!20,right color=white] let \p1=(counter.north), \p2=(content.north) in
            (0,{max(\y1,\y2)}) rectangle (content.south east);
        \end{pgfonlayer}
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}}

\titleformat{\section}%              
    {}%
    {}%
    {0pt}%
    {\boxedsection}%

\begin{document}
\chapter{test}
\section{Overview}
\section{Implementation}
\section{a very long section entry a very long section entry a very long section entry a very long section entry a very long section entry}
\end{document}

example

[Tex/LaTex] Tune space around section headings

You don't need to use a brute-force solution: the titlesec package provides a \titlespacing command to set these values properly:

\titlespacing*{⟨command⟩}{⟨left⟩}{⟨beforesep⟩}{⟨aftersep⟩}[⟨right⟩]

From the manual:

The starred version kills the indentation of the paragraph following the title, except in drop, wrap and runin where this possibility does not make sense.

⟨left⟩ increases the left margin, except in the ...margin, and drop shape, where this parameter sets the title width, in wrap, the maximum width, and in runin, the indentation just before the title. With negative value the title overhangs.

⟨beforesep⟩ is the vertical space before the title.

⟨aftersep⟩ is the separation between title and text—vertical with hang, block, and display, and horizontal with runin, drop, wrap and ...margin. By making the value negative, you may define an effective space of less than \parskip.

The hang, block and display shapes have the possibility of increasing the ⟨right⟩ margin with this optional argument.

Best Answer

Updated version

Remarks:

Initial versions:

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Section title gradient

[Tex/LaTex] Tune space around section headings

Related Question