[Tex/LaTex] put a line break in \pgftext

line-breakingtikz-pgf

Simple question: I'm making a picture with PGF (basic layer, not TikZ) and I would like to add some text using \pgftext. The problem is that any \\ or \newline line breaks within the text are apparently ignored. Is there some way I can force a line break to appear?

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{pgf}

\begin{document}
 \begin{pgfpicture}
  \pgftext{can haz line \\ break plz?}
  \pgftext[y = -20pt]{i made u a line \newline break but tex eated it}
 \end{pgfpicture}
 \end{document}

This is not mentioned in the manual at all, and the only other discussion I can find is this post from comp.tex.pgf.user which doesn't actually include a solution, only the workaround of using a TikZ node with [align=...]. But, mostly for curiosity's sake, suppose using TikZ is off the table. Is it still possible to do line breaks? (I would think so, since TikZ itself must do it somehow)

Best Answer

egreg's solution or perhaps a minipage

\pgftext[y=-20pt]{\begin{minipage}{5cm}can haz line \\ break plz?\end{minipage}}

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[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!

[Tex/LaTex] Line break after description label

The insertion of an empty item seems to give a better vertical spacing. One can define a myitemize environment that includes this empty item; that will prevent typing it for each description item:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}

\newenvironment{myitemize}%
{\begin{itemize}\item[]}
{\end{itemize}}

\begin{document}

\begin{description}[style = sameline, leftmargin = 1em]
\item[Animals:]
  \begin{itemize}
  \item[]
  \item Dog
  \item Cat
  \item Fish
  \end{itemize}

\item[Colors:]
  \begin{myitemize}
  \item Red
  \item Green
  \item Blue
  \end{myitemize}
\end{description}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

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