[Tex/LaTex] Place quotation (dictum) in a box

boxeskoma-scriptquotingsectioning

Background

Looking to change the appearance of quotations at the start of each Chapter (or Part). The book is using KOMA Script v2. (Most searches for the quote command come back with results for typesetting quotation marks, rather than aphorisms.)

Problem

Currently, the quotation resembles:

enter image description here

Am looking for something similar to:

Good code is short, simple, and symmetrical — the challenge is figuring out how to get there.
~Sean Parent

(A double line border, a background colour, but using a serif font with the author name right-justified.)

Source Code

The quotation is defined as follows:

\setchapterpreamble{\dictum[Sean Parent]{Good code...}}

I have altered the style of the dictum settings as follows:

\renewcommand*{\dictumwidth}{.75\textwidth}
\renewcommand*{\dictumauthorformat}[1]{\textsc{#1}\bigskip}

Questions

What packages allow such fine control over quotations (or quotes)? (Neither fncychap nor quotchap offer sufficient sophistication.)
How can the aphorism be placed in a \colorbox? (Using \dictumtext?)
What is a good way to add double lines to the box?

Suggestions on how to place a sentence of text inside a box with a border around it

Best Answer

I did not use epigraph. I wrote my own version:

\usepackage{times}

\definecolor{quotationcolour}{HTML}{F0F0F0}
\definecolor{quotationmarkcolour}{HTML}{1F3F81}

% Double-line for start and end of epigraph.
\newcommand{\epiline}{\hrule \vskip -.2em \hrule}
% Massively humongous opening quotation mark.
\newcommand{\hugequote}{%
  \fontsize{42}{48}\selectfont \color{quotationmarkcolour} \textbf{``}
  \vskip -.5em
}

% Beautify quotations.
\newcommand{\epigraph}[2]{%
  \bigskip
  \begin{flushright}
  \colorbox{quotationcolour}{%
    \parbox{.60\textwidth}{%
    \epiline \vskip 1em {\hugequote} \vskip -.5em
    \parindent 2.2em
    #1\begin{flushright}\textsc{#2}\end{flushright}
    \epiline
    }
  }
  \end{flushright}
  \bigskip
}

The result:

Epigraph

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to rotate a box in-place

This can be easily done with adjustbox v0.8 from 2011/11/14. It provides the original width as \Width which can be used to center the rotated content around it (with the rest overlapping on the left and right) or to calculate the amount which the rotated content should overlap to the left, which is the \hskip you are talking about. The current width is always \width, so lap=-.5\width+.5\Width will make the rotated content lap over to the left. See the adjustbox manual for details.

With an older version of adjustbox you can substitute \Width with \wd\bxb if you box the content by yourself. If you don't want to use adjustbox, but rather do it yourself, you need to box both the original content (\bxb) and the rotated one (say \bxc) and then use \mbox{\hskip\dimexpr -.5\wd\bxb+.5\wd\bxc\relax\usebox\bxc} to typeset the box.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}[2011/11/14]
\usepackage{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\newsavebox\bxa
\newsavebox\bxb
\huge
\savebox\bxa{\color{red}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}
\savebox\bxb{\color{black}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}
\usebox\bxa\rotatebox[origin=c]{45}{\usebox\bxb}This is what I do not want\par
\usebox\bxa\hskip-0.25cm\rotatebox[origin=c]{45}{\usebox\bxb}This is what I DO want

\usebox\bxa\adjustbox{origin=c,angle=45,center=\Width}{\usebox\bxb}This is with the original width

\usebox\bxa\adjustbox{origin=c,angle=45,lap=-.5\width+.5\Width}{\usebox\bxb}This is with overlapping only at the left

% As macro:
\newcommand{\somespecialrotate}[2][]{\adjustbox{#1,angle={#2},lap=-.5\width+.5\Width}}

\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{15}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{25}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{35}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{45}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{55}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{65}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{75}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{85}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\usebox\bxa\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{95}{\usebox\bxb}This is some text\par
\end{document}

Here a graphicx-only solution which only uses one temporary box register:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\somespecialrotate}[3][]{%
    \begingroup
    \sbox\@tempboxa{#3}%
    \@tempdima=.5\wd\@tempboxa
    \sbox\@tempboxa{\rotatebox[#1]{#2}{\usebox\@tempboxa}}%
    \advance\@tempdima by -.5\wd\@tempboxa
    \mbox{\hskip\@tempdima\usebox\@tempboxa}%
    \endgroup
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\huge
{\color{red}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{45}{\color{black}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}This is some text\par
{\color{red}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}\somespecialrotate[origin=c]{30}{\color{black}\rule{1cm}{1cm}}This is some text\par

\end{document}

Result

Lower part:

Result2

And here for angles from 0,5,...,180:

[Tex/LaTex] How to put a quotation box wrapped in text

I might have misunderstood the question... but I think you want to wrap the quotation within text. It can be achieved using wrapfig package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{wrapfig}% http://ctan.org/pkg/wrapfig
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\begin{document}
\begin{wrapfigure}[11]{l}{.5\textwidth}
\fbox{\begin{minipage}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxrule-2\fboxsep}
%\centering
``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Proin ac tempus dui. Etiam non mattis neque. Maecenas tempor,
massa a luctus sollicitudin, elit massa auctor velit, eu mattis
lacus arcu nec est. 

Sed et lectus non tellus posuere consequat.
Donec congue lacinia urna a iaculis. Cras id nisl sed sapien
euismod rhoncus.''
\end{minipage}}
\end{wrapfigure}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}