[Tex/LaTex] Partially transparent gray chronoevents in the chronosys timeline? Or using any other Plain-TeX, LaTeX, LuaLaTeX, or even a XeLaTex package or method

chronosyscolorplain-textikz-pgf

While putting together a "traditional" timeline, I kludged together a means of coloring my boxes in chronosys, but I would like the event boxes to be partially transparent.

This would allow better eye-tracking, particularly when events are close together, with different mark depths. Please see the below mock up, made with Gimp, for how this might look.

It would also be nice if the text was better aligned to the colorbox, notice the "s" in Darwin and the "m-" in Empire. My kludge code seems to work ~~but produces errors.~~ **(Thanks to Kola B., and see Gray vs. grey)

The code is below:

\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt,landscape]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{chronosys}

\begin{document}

\subsection*{Biographical cornerstones}
\startchronology[startyear=1850,stopyear=1950,height=0.5ex]

\chronoevent[textwidth=4.5cm,colorbox={grey!10},markdepth=100pt]%
{1882}{born in the Austrian part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire}
\chronoevent[textwidth=4cm,colorbox={grey!10},markdepth=40pt]%
{1885}{Publication of Darwin's Evolutionary Theory}

\stopchronology

\end{document}

A sample of the above when compiled:

A crude mock up of what this might look like:

The chronosys documentation does not mention transparency as an option, but as it uses Tikz (for drawing lines), and colorbox (for events) and I believe transparency is possible.

I tried the following, attempting to use how to specify transparent colors per cfr's reference:

\documentclass[letterpaper,12pt,landscape]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{chronosys}
\usepackage{transparent}

\begin{document}

\subsection*{Biographical cornerstones}
\startchronology[startyear=1850,stopyear=1950,height=0.5ex]

\chronoevent[textwidth=4.5cm,colorbox={gray!10},markdepth=100pt]%
{1881}{born in the Austrian part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire}
\chronoevent[textwidth=4cm,markdepth=40pt]%
{1885}{\transparent{0.3}\colorbox{blue}{Publication of Darwin's Evolutionary Theory}}

\stopchronology

\end{document}

But the result was this:

Changing the transparency affects the color of the box, making it lighter or darker, but not allowing the box to become more, or less, transparent. Notice that the text in the light blue box is very faint. The text within the box also becomes lighter or darker when the "transparency" is modified, an unwanted side effect.

Please advise if a solution exists using another timeline package other than chronosys It also occurred to me that another way of accomplishing the goal would be to somehow make the lines connecting the boxes semi transparent. The solution should be able to reflect month/day/year for events, with automatic horizontal placement of events on the timeline. If anyone knows how to turn percusse's answer into a MWE that would be appreciated. It does not matter if the answer is "plain-TeX" or "Tikz", or requires multiple compilation, or otherwise, just so long as it works.

Bravo to @cfr for the below solution which works perfectly. His solution makes for a different type of timeline than can be made with currently available LaTeX/TeX packages (at least with the packages that I know of).

Notwithstanding the wonderful solution presented, it still be helpful to have a "package" based solution, either with chronosys or another package.

Best Answer

Current version of chronos is available at:
https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/342699/ (2016-12-06)

Here's a basic version. Essentially, the style chronos sets up the basic timeline. chronos date can then be used to get the appropriate point on that timeline from which to drop the lines to the event nodes. Information from chronos date can also be used in the node itself. Here it is used to print the date before the node content.

I've used a loop to add events, but this is just to save typing. They could be added one by one if preferred.

The basic timeline schema should be laid out like this:

\begin{tikzpicture}
    [
      chronos={%
        <options>
      },
    ]
    <events and such on the timeline specified in the usual way>
\end{tikzpicture}

The options for chronos are as follows:

width=<dimension>,
height=<dimension>,
start date=YYYY-MM-DD,
end date=YYYY-MM-DD,

By default the timeline is 1pt high and 100mm wide and the start and end dates are at the beginning of the last millennium.

chronos date=YYYY-MM-DD can then be used in the picture to help place things on the timeline. For example, I use it below in a loop as follows where \i holds the date for the current iteration, \j holds the text and \k holds the distance to offset the node below the timeline.

\path [postaction={draw=gray, -{Triangle[width=1.5pt,reversed,length=.75pt,fill=gray]}}, chronos date/.expanded={\i}] ({(\thechronosthingdate-\thechronosstartdate)*\chronosunit pt},0) -- +(0,-\k) node [anchor=north, fill opacity=.75, fill=gray!25, draw=gray, rounded corners, font=\footnotesize\sffamily] {\chronosthingday/\chronosthingmonth/\chronosthingyear\\\j};

chronos date is fed \i i.e. the date and this sets both \thechronosthingdate and each of \chronosthingyear, \chronosthingmonth and \chronosthingday. The first is a number which can be used to calculate how far along the timeline to place the event. This should be at

({(\thechronosthingdate-\thechronosstartdate)*\chronosunit pt},0)

\thechronosstartdate holds a number corresponding to the start date of the timeline and \chronosunit holds the length in points allowed for each day. This is calculated when chronos is used from the start and end dates and the width. An offset of 10pt is allowed at each end so that the first date isn't right at the start nor the last date right at the end.

\chronosthingday, \chronosthingmonth and \chronosthingyear hold the day, month and year set by chronos date respectively and can be used in the content of nodes or labels, if desired.

Feeding our loop the following set of triples (\i/\j/\k)

{1001-11-05}/{No fireworks}/10pt
{1002-07-04}/{No fireworks}/80pt
{1002-05-01}/{May Day}/50pt
{1002-06-21}/{Summer Solstice}/10pt

thus yields

Complete code:

\documentclass[tikz,multi,border=10pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{datenumber}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
\newcounter{chronosstartdate}
\newcounter{chronosenddate}
\newcounter{chronosstartyear}
\newcounter{chronosendyear}
\newcounter{chronosyeardate}
\newcounter{chronosthingdate}
\pgfkeys{/pgf/number format,
  int detect,
  set thousands separator={},
}
\tikzset{
  chronos/.code={% https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/159856/ - Claudio Fiandrino
    \tikzset{%
      align=center,
      anchor=mid,
      /chronos/.cd,
      #1
    }%
    \setstartyear{\chronosstartyear}%
    \setmydatenumber{chronosstartdate}{\chronosstartyear}{\chronosstartmonth}{\chronosstartday}%
    \setmydatenumber{chronosenddate}{\chronosendyear}{\chronosendmonth}{\chronosendday}%
    \pgfmathsetmacro\chronosunit{(\chronoswidth-20pt)/(\thechronosenddate-\thechronosstartdate)}%
    \draw [line width=\chronosheight] (-10pt,0) coordinate (chronos pre) -- +(\chronoswidth,0) coordinate (chronos post);
    \coordinate (chronos start) at (0,0);
    \coordinate (chronos end) at ([xshift=-10pt]chronos post);
    \setcounter{chronosstartyear}{\chronosstartyear}%
    \setcounter{chronosendyear}{\chronosendyear}%
    \def\tempa{01}%
    \ifx\chronosstartmonth\tempa
      \ifx\chronosstartday\tempa
        \else\stepcounter{chronosstartyear}%
      \fi
      \else\stepcounter{chronosstartyear}%
    \fi
    \def\tempa{12}%
    \def\tempb{31}%
    \ifx\chronosendmonth\tempa
      \ifx\chronosendday\tempb
        \stepcounter{chronosendyear}%
      \fi
    \fi
    \foreach \i in {\thechronosstartyear,...,\thechronosendyear} {%
      \setmydatenumber{chronosyeardate}{\i}{01}{01}%
      \node [above, anchor=south] at ({(\thechronosyeardate-\thechronosstartdate)*\chronosunit pt},0) {\i}; }
  },
  chronos date/.code args={#1-#2-#3}{%
    \tikzset{%
      /chronos/.cd,
      thing year={#1},
      thing month={#2},
      thing day={#3},
    }%
    \setmydatenumber{chronosthingdate}{\chronosthingyear}{\chronosthingmonth}{\chronosthingday}%
  },
  /chronos/.search also={/tikz},
  /chronos/.cd,
  start year/.store in=\chronosstartyear,
  start month/.store in=\chronosstartmonth,
  start day/.store in=\chronosstartday,
  end year/.store in=\chronosendyear,
  end month/.store in=\chronosendmonth,
  end day/.store in=\chronosendday,
  thing year/.store in=\chronosthingyear,
  thing month/.store in=\chronosthingmonth,
  thing day/.store in=\chronosthingday,
  start date/.style args={#1-#2-#3}{%
    start year={#1},
    start month={#2},
    start day={#3},
  },
  end date/.style args={#1-#2-#3}{%
    end year={#1},
    end month={#2},
    end day={#3},
  },
  width/.store in=\chronoswidth,
  height/.store in=\chronosheight,
  start date=1001-10-01,
  end date=1003-06-14,
  width=100mm,
  height=1pt,
  chronos date=1850-01-01,
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  [chronos]
  \foreach \i/\j/\k in {{1001-11-05}/{No fireworks}/10pt,{1002-07-04}/{No fireworks}/80pt,{1002-05-01}/{May Day}/50pt,{1002-06-21}/{Summer Solstice}/10pt}
 {%
   \path [postaction={draw=gray, -{Triangle[width=1.5pt,reversed,length=.75pt,fill=gray]}}, chronos date/.expanded={\i}] ({(\thechronosthingdate-\thechronosstartdate)*\chronosunit pt},0) -- +(0,-\k) node [anchor=north, fill opacity=.75, fill=gray!25, draw=gray, rounded corners, font=\footnotesize\sffamily] {\chronosthingday/\chronosthingmonth/\chronosthingyear\\\j};
  }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to create Multilevel Colored Boxes using tcolorbox/any other package

And here's one possibility using mdframed:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed}

\definecolor{mybrown}{RGB}{128,64,0}

\mdfdefinestyle{mystyle}{%
linecolor=mybrown,outerlinewidth=1pt,%
frametitlerule=true,frametitlefont=\sffamily\bfseries\color{white},%
frametitlerulewidth=1pt,frametitlerulecolor=mybrown,%
frametitlebackgroundcolor=mybrown,
backgroundcolor=mybrown!05,
innertopmargin=\topskip,
roundcorner=5pt
}
\mdtheorem[style=mystyle]{example}{Example}

\gdef\Sepline{%
  \par\noindent\makebox[\linewidth][l]{%
  \hspace*{-\mdflength{innerleftmargin}}%
   \tikz\draw[thick,dashed,gray!60] (0,0) --%
        (\textwidth+\the\mdflength{innerleftmargin}+\the\mdflength{innerrightmargin},0);
  }\par\nobreak}


\begin{document}

\begin{example}[The Title]
The contents of the first part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the second part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the third part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the fourth part.
\end{example}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Here's now a modification not using a theorem-like structure, but a simple environment with a mandatory argument to provide a title:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed}

\definecolor{mybrown}{RGB}{128,64,0}

\mdfdefinestyle{mystyle}{%
linecolor=mybrown,outerlinewidth=1pt,%
frametitlerule=true,frametitlefont=\sffamily\bfseries\color{white},%
frametitlerulewidth=1pt,frametitlerulecolor=mybrown,%
frametitlebackgroundcolor=mybrown,
backgroundcolor=mybrown!05,
innertopmargin=\topskip,
roundcorner=5pt
}
\newmdenv[style=mystyle]{exa}
\newenvironment{example}[1]
  {\begin{exa}[frametitle=#1]}
  {\end{exa}}

\gdef\Sepline{%
  \par\noindent\makebox[\linewidth][l]{%
  \hspace*{-\mdflength{innerleftmargin}}%
   \tikz\draw[thick,dashed,gray!60] (0,0) --%
        (\textwidth+\the\mdflength{innerleftmargin}+\the\mdflength{innerrightmargin},0);
  }\par\nobreak}

\begin{document}

\begin{example}{The Title}
The contents of the first part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the second part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the third part.
\Sepline
\noindent The contents of the fourth part.
\end{example}

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Create a box using the tcolorbox package or any other? (image)

I offer a solution based on the xcoffin package, not to compete with the other excellent solutions proposed, but to show the advantages of a great package.

Many questions posted in this forum relates with the positioning of various elements as graphics, tables, text, etc. on a page, in specific places and in relation with one another. In many cases against TeX wishes.

Over time I was able to replace geometry, rotate, titlepage, and similar packages with xcoffin, to design book covers, title-pages, posters, chapter styles, etc. thus avoiding conflicts and specially avoiding the dreadful time checking a full upgrade to discover that old projects not longer produce the same output or simply did not run at all.

To me the lesser number of packages, the better.

xcoffin provides only a handful of commands with intuitive meaning (at least for me) and does not require remembering dozens of keyvals or options. Excellent manual, by the way.

I also appreciate the fact that in the case of the one-time jobs mentioned earlier, the resulting code is very simple since there not need to contemplate multiple alternatives for the input and it is mostly auto-documented. Even if a book title changes over the course of a project, the corrections are straightforward.

Of course previously you need to produce the material, perhaps using amsmath, xcolor, tabularx, graphicx, ... and then fill the coffin with it.

Afterward you fit the coffins in the page using as origin the current text insertion point, or in relative positions among themselves, as could be the case of an image and a margin explanatory note. Then you typeset the result at the insertion point or in any other place of the page of your liking (a plus) since the resulting coffin it is not a float.

In this particular case only four coffins are required: the Output which will collect the others, a green rectangle, a side rule, and the inside text, as shown in the code. Both the rectangle and the rule adapts theirs height to the text content.

I also include a macro, to be moved to the preamble, to reduce the clutter of the document. For the fun of it, and supposing that several Definitions will be included in the document, I added a counter and applied the macro five times.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{xcoffins,calc}

\begin{document}

%% Create and Set Coffins

\NewCoffin\Output   %Coffin to hold the others 
\NewCoffin\Definition % Definition definition ...
\NewCoffin\BackFrame % Background: green rectangle
\NewCoffin\SideRule  %lateral left border

\SetHorizontalCoffin\Output{} % It will provide the reference point to join the others

\SetVerticalCoffin\Definition{\linewidth}{%
\textbf{Definition.} $\gamma^5$ is defined to be the matrix given by:%
\[\gamma^5=\frac{1}{24}\epsilon_{abcd}\gamma^{abcd} \]%
}

%% Make both \BackFrame & SideRule heights = height of Definition + 1*baselineskip
\SetHorizontalCoffin\BackFrame{\color{green!30!gray!15}\rule{\linewidth}{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition + \baselineskip}}    

\SetHorizontalCoffin\SideRule{\color{green!50!black}\rule{3pt}{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition +\baselineskip}} %vertical side rule 

%% Assembly Coffins
\JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\BackFrame[l,t] %attach left-top corner of BackFrame  to idem of Output
\JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\SideRule[l,t] %attach left-top corner of  SideRule to idem of Output
\JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\Definition[l,t](0pt,-\baselineskip) %attack left-top corner of Definition to idem of Output

%% now your document

We need some more meaningless test to for a multiline paragraph, because these form a basis for the space of all complex $4\times4$ matrices.

%% Typeset Definition
\noindent\TypesetCoffin\Output % at the text insertion point. It is not a float.
\vspace*{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition}\bigskip %make some room for Output

We can invert this to obtain $ \epsilon_{abcd}i\gamma^{abcd} \lambda^{5}$, but we need som more meaningless test to for a multiline paragraph. 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  macro def, to be moved  to the preamble, use as \SetDefinition{your-text}
\newcounter{defcounter}

\newcommand{\SetDefinition}[1]{%
    \SetHorizontalCoffin\Output{} % It will be the reference point join the others  
    \SetVerticalCoffin\Definition{\linewidth}{\textbf{Definition \stepcounter{defcounter}\Roman{defcounter}.} #1} %added counter

    %% Make both \BackFrame & SideRule heights = height of Definition + 1*baselineskip
    \SetHorizontalCoffin\BackFrame{\color{green!30!gray!15}\rule{\linewidth}{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition + \baselineskip}}    
    \SetHorizontalCoffin\SideRule{\color{green!50!black}\rule{3pt}{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition +\baselineskip}} %vertical side rule 

    %% Assembly Coffins
    \JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\BackFrame[l,t] %attach left-top corner of BackFrame  to idem of Output
    \JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\SideRule[l,t] %attach left-top corner of  SideRule to idem of Output
    \JoinCoffins*\Output[l,t]\Definition[l,t](0pt,-\baselineskip) %attack left-top corner of Definition to idem of Output
    %% Typeset ooutput
    \noindent\TypesetCoffin\Output % at the text insertion point. It is not a float.
    \vspace*{\CoffinTotalHeight\Definition}\bigskip %make some room for Output
}   
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%   end macro

\SetDefinition{$\gamma^1$ is defined to be the matrix given by:\[\gamma^1=\frac{1}{24}\epsilon_{abcd}\gamma^{abcd} \]}
\SetDefinition{$\gamma^2$ is defined to be the matrix given by:\[\gamma^2=\frac{1}{24}\epsilon_{abcd}\gamma^{abcd} \]}
\SetDefinition{$\gamma^3$ is defined to be the matrix given by:\[\gamma^3=\frac{1}{24}\epsilon_{abcd}\gamma^{abcd} \]}
\SetDefinition{$\gamma^4$ is defined to be the matrix given by:\[\gamma^4=\frac{1}{24}\epsilon_{abcd}\gamma^{abcd} \]}
\SetDefinition{$\gamma^5$ is defined to be the matrix given above.\\} % a short Definition
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to create Multilevel Colored Boxes using tcolorbox/any other package

[Tex/LaTex] Create a box using the tcolorbox package or any other? (image)

Related Question