boxesequations
I currently use the \boxed{} command to place boxes around my equations. However, I would like to have more control of the style of the box. Is there a way to do this?
To take a specific example, the figure below shows both the standard \boxed{} out put (a) and the desired mock-up (b), where I have increased the box size and increased the border thickness slightly.
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:
You can use the predefined boxes from the fancybox package, which you can wrap around equations via the empheq package:
\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{kpfonts,amssymb,empheq,fancybox}
\newsavebox{\mybox}
\newcommand{\raisedshadowbox}[1]{%
\sbox\mybox{\shadowbox{#1}}%
\raisebox{-0.5\ht\mybox-0.5\shadowsize+0.6ex}{\usebox\mybox}%
}
\begin{document}
A double box
\begin{empheq}[box=\doublebox]{align}
a&=b\\
E&=mc^2 + \int_a^a x\, dx
\end{empheq}
An oval box (cheesy)
\begin{empheq}[box=\ovalbox]{align}
a&=b\\
E&=mc^2 + \int_a^a x\, dx
\end{empheq}
A shadowbox, which has some vertical alignment problems \ldots
\begin{empheq}[box=\shadowbox]{align}
a&=b\\
E&=mc^2 + \int_a^a x\, dx
\end{empheq}
\ldots which apparently can be fixed by sticking it into a raisebox.
\begin{empheq}[box=\raisedshadowbox]{align}
a&=b\\
E&=mc^2 + \int_a^a x\, dx
\end{empheq}
\end{document}
This gives
Note that the definition of \raisedshadowbox contains a fudge factor of 0.6ex for the vertical offset correction. I don't know what this compensates for, but it does seem to work across different font sizes, line heights as well as \shadowbox, \fboxsep and \fboxrule settings.
Best Answer
Someone is going to suggest a tikz box with multicoloured translucent rounded corners, but before they do I'll observe that
\boxedis a thin wrapper around\fboxso you can useto set the padding inside the box and
to set the line thickness.