[Tex/LaTex] How to color rows when using makecell

colormakecelltables

I'd like to color the rows of a table to make it easy readable. Some cells have multiple lines, so I use the makecell package, and planned to use the xcolor for coloring, but they are clashing. Sample code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{makecell}
%\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{bpchem}

\begin{document}
    %\rowcolors[1]{gray!25}{white}
    \begin{tabular}{ccc}
        \BPChem{H\_2O}&\BPChem{H\_3N}&\BPChem{H\_4C}\\
        \makecell{\BPChem{H\_2O\_2}\\unstable}&\BPChem{H\_4N\_2}&\BPChem{H\_6C\_2}\\
        not exists&\makecell{\BPChem{H\_5N\_3}\\unstable}&\BPChem{H\_8C\_3}\\
    \end{tabular}
\end{document}

Best Answer

The \rowcolors command needs 3 mandatory arguments. As I don't have bpchem installed, I loaded chemformula, which anyway has a simpler syntax for compounds. I took the liberty to change the shade of grey for a nicer one, and added some vertical padding at the top of rows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{makecell}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{chemformula}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}\setlength\extrarowheight{2pt}
 \rowcolors{1}{Lavender!80!gray}{white}
    \begin{tabular}{ccc}
    \ch{H2O}&\ch{H3N}&\ch{H4C}\\
        \makecell[t]{\ch{H2O2}\\unstable}&\ch{H4N2}&\ch{H6C2}\\
        not exists&\makecell[t]{\ch{H5N3}\\unstable}&\ch{H8C3}\\
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

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[Tex/LaTex] Use column-separator & (ampersand) inside \newenvironment

The problem is that the \begin{...} and \end{...} pair commands automatically create a "group" so that, in effect, the & and \\ are "out of scope" for the tabular, while inside the "production" environment they just show up at a place where the compiler is not expecting them.

A second problem with your definitions is that, even if they would work, they would be adding an extra \\ at the end of the tabular, adding an unwanted space at the end. Perhaps some more appropriate definitions would be

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}

\newcommand{\production}[1]{#1 ::= &}
\newenvironment{grammar}{\tabular{p{3cm}l}}{\endtabular}

\begin{document}
\begin{grammar}
\production{XmlStartTag} ... \\
\production{XmlOtherTag} ... \\
\production{XmlEndTag} ...
\end{grammar}
\end{document}

Note no \\ at the end of the last production. Also in the definition of the grammar you don't need to repeat the work of \begin/\end, and you can instead directly use \tabular and \endtabular.

[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!

Best Answer

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

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