[Tex/LaTex] \resizebox shifts tikzpicture up when in a subfloat environment

boxesscalingtikz-pgfvertical alignment

Why when I try to re-scale a tikz figure using \resizebox the baseline is shifted up (regardless of how small the scale factor is), and two horizontal floats are not aligned properly.

not aligned

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subfig}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}%
\subfloat[]{%
\fbox{
\resizebox{0.5\linewidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node {a};%
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%end resize
}%fbox
}&%end subfloat
\subfloat[]{%
\begin{tabular}{c|cccc}%
  & 0 & 1 & \dots & n\\\hline
a & & & &\\
b & & & &\\
c & & & &\\
\dots & & & &\\
d & & & &\\
\end{tabular}%
}%end subfloat
\end{tabular}%
\caption{Why resizebox shifts the baseline up?}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Best Answer

The problem is not the baseline of the \resizebox but the baseline of the tabular which is on its center by default. So changing the baseline of the tabular with [b] solves this issue:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subfig}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}%
\subfloat[]{%
\fbox{
\resizebox{0.5\linewidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node {a};%
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%end resize
}%fbox
}&%end subfloat
\subfloat[]{%
\begin{tabular}[b]{c|cccc}% === [b] added here ===
  & 0 & 1 & \dots & n\\\hline
a & & & &\b & & & &\c & & & &\\dots & & & &\d & & & &\\end{tabular}%
}%end subfloat
\end{tabular}%
\caption{Why resizebox shifts the baseline up?}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Addendum 2013-01-04: As user adn has found out, the captions are still not perfectly aligned. (See comments below.) A possible solution would be switching to the subcaption package resp. its \subcaptionbox command:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}%
\subcaptionbox{}{%
\fbox{
\resizebox{0.5\linewidth}{!}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node {a};%
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%end resize
}%fbox
}&%end subcaptionbox
\subcaptionbox{}{%
\begin{tabular}{c|cccc}%
  & 0 & 1 & \dots & n\\\hline
a & & & &\b & & & &\c & & & &\\dots & & & &\d & & & &\\end{tabular}%
}%end \subcaptionbox
\end{tabular}%
\caption{Why resizebox shifts the baseline up?}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Please note that changing the baseline of the inner tabular (with [b]) is not necessary here since a \subcaptionbox always has its baseline between content and caption, and therefore the two \subcaptionboxes are already aligned by default.

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