On page 6 in this PDF is there a table with centred pictures in the right column.
Does anyone know how to make such a table?
I am using pdflatex.
Tables – How to Make a Table with Centered Images
graphicstablesvertical alignment
Related Solutions
The problem is in understanding precisely how tabular works.
Each cell has a reference point of reference and all the reference points are eventually put on the same horizontal line. For l, c, and r cells the reference point is on the baseline; for a p cell the reference point is on the first line's baseline; for m cells the reference point is midway from the top and the bottom of the text; for b cells it's on the last line's baseline.
Thus a tabular specification such as
{l m{3cm} p{3cm}}
will not place the middle cells of a row mid aligned with respect to the last cell, but rather its content will stick above the last column by (slightly less than) half its vertical size.
The kind of alignment you're trying to get can't be obtained without measuring the cells' contents, as Stefan Kottwitz's answer about \tabbox shows: that 3.7\baselineskip was good for that example, not in general.
Here's a way out, in your specific case (note the use of \adjustbox for the picture):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs,adjustbox}
\newcommand{\finalcells}[2]{%
\begingroup\sbox0{\begin{minipage}{3cm}\raggedright#1\end{minipage}}%
\sbox2{\begin{minipage}{3cm}\raggedright#2\end{minipage}}%
\xdef\finalheight{\the\dimexpr\ht0+\dp0+\smallskipamount\relax}%
\xdef\finalheightB{\the\dimexpr\ht2+\dp2+\smallskipamount\relax}%
\ifdim\finalheightB>\finalheight
\global\let\finalheight\finalheightB
\fi\endgroup
\begin{minipage}[t][\finalheight][t]{3cm}\raggedright#1\end{minipage}&
\begin{minipage}[t][\finalheight][t]{3cm}\raggedright#2\end{minipage}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{c m{2cm} m{3cm} m{3cm} m{3cm}}
\toprule
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 1} &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 2} &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 3} &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 4} &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 5} \\
\midrule
Short Text &
Slightly Longer Text &
\adjustbox{valign=c}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
% Draw beam and end lines
\draw (-1.5,-0.75) rectangle (1.5,0.75) ;
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
&
\finalcells{Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it.}
{Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it.
Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it.} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
You may have to reduce the inter-column spacing by adding something like \setlength{\tabcolsep}{<len>} before the tabular (or placing it inside a group to limit the scope of the change, like inside a table environment). Either fix <len> or use something relative, like .5\tabcolsep to reduce the current \tabcolsep to 50% of its value.
\tabcolsep has a default value of 6pt under the regular document classes.
Best Answer
You need to change the baseline of the images. Usually you center it to the height of the lower case characters (1ex). This can be done using the
\raiseboxmacro or using thevalign=mkey of theadjustboxpackage.See also How to align picture top left in a table? and float left figure in titlepage which are similar.
Here my code which also shows some of the other elements like bold math and stacking: