[Tex/LaTex] tcolorbox: height fill in the middle of the page

tcolorbox

I am looking for a tcolorbox that has the hight like a \vfill.

I have a page with tcolorboxes.
If there is some space left on the page, I would like to extend the hight of a box in the middle of the page. The box should have the hight of a \vfill.

There is alreadey a very nice feature, the option height fill that does exactly what I want but just for the last box on the page.

Would be great, if the solution also works for a raster like the example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}
\tcbuselibrary{breakable}
\begin{document}
other 
\clearpage
\begin{tcolorbox}a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\end{tcolorbox}
\begin{tcbraster}[%
    raster columns=2,
    raster rows=1,
    raster height=6cm, % manual adjustment :-( 
    %raster height=\vfill,% I would like to have the hight like \vfill
    %height fill,% Nice, but only working at the end of the page :-(
]
    \begin{tcolorbox}
        Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
    \end{tcolorbox}
    \begin{tcolorbox}
        Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
    \end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcbraster}
\begin{tcolorbox}a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a
\end{tcolorbox}
\clearpage
other 
\end{document}

@cfr

As you advised, I have put all boxes in the raster. The first and the last box should be natural height. Could you please show me how to extend the two boxes in the middle to fill the page?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}
\tcbuselibrary{breakable}
\begin{document}
other 
\clearpage
\begin{tcbraster}[%
    raster columns=1,
    raster rows=3,
    raster height=\textheight,
    ]
    \begin{tcolorbox}[reset,natural height]
        a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a
    \end{tcolorbox}
    \begin{tcbraster}[%
        raster columns=2,
        raster rows=1,
        raster height=6cm,% how to extend the height to fill the page?
    ]
        \begin{tcolorbox}
            Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
        \end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}
            Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
        \end{tcolorbox}
    \end{tcbraster}
    \begin{tcolorbox}[reset,natural height]
        a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a
    \end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcbraster}
\clearpage
other 
\end{document}

Best Answer

This needs some manual effort. In my code, the height of the top and bottom boxes are saved by equal height groups of name topbox and bottombox. Now, the height of the middle boxes are set to \textheight-\topboxheight-\bottomboxheight-4mm where 2mm is the space between the boxes.

tcolorbox version 3.80 (2015/11/27) or newer is needed for this answer.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}
\tcbuselibrary{breakable}
\begin{document}
other
\clearpage
%-------------------
\begin{tcolorbox}[equal height group=topbox,
  before skip=0mm,after skip=2mm]a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\end{tcolorbox}
\begin{tcbraster}[%
    raster columns=2,
    raster rows=1,
    code={%
      \tcbheightfromgroup\topboxheight{topbox}%
      \tcbheightfromgroup\bottomboxheight{bottombox}%
    },
    raster height=\textheight-\topboxheight-\bottomboxheight-4mm]
    \begin{tcolorbox}
        Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
    \end{tcolorbox}
    \begin{tcolorbox}
        Here we will have a plot that is nice to extend if there is some space left on the page.
    \end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcbraster}
\begin{tcolorbox}[equal height group=bottombox,
  before skip=2mm,after skip=0mm]a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a
\end{tcolorbox}
%-------------------
\clearpage
other
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] tcolorbox: get height of actual box from inside box

With tcolorbox version 3.90 (2016/02/29), there is a property \tcbtextheight which holds the text height of a fixed height box (inspired by this question!). With it, the solution is short:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikzscale}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}

\begin{filecontents}{tikzimage.tikz}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \begin{axis}[xlabel=time,ylabel=value]
            \addplot{x^2};
        \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents}


\begin{document}
    \begin{tcbraster}[%
        raster columns=2,
        raster rows=2,
        raster height=\textheight,
        ]
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}[title={box 1\\line two}]
            \includegraphics[%
            width=\linewidth,
            height=\tcbtextheight,
            ]{tikzimage.tikz}
        \end{tcolorbox}
    \end{tcbraster}
\end{document}

Old Answer (valid for tcolorbox before version 3.90):

In my answer, a new option remember height is constructed which saves the actual inner height into a chosen macro at the begin of the upper box. The following example uses \myheight which can be used to scale the included image.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikzscale}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}

\begin{filecontents}{tikzimage.tikz}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \begin{axis}[xlabel=time,ylabel=value]
            \addplot{x^2};
        \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents}


\makeatletter
\tcbset{%
  remember height/.style={before upper={%
    \iftcb@fixedheight%
      \tcbdimto#1{\kvtcb@top@rule@stand+\kvtcb@bottom@rule@stand+\kvtcb@boxsep*2+\kvtcb@top+\kvtcb@bottom}%
      \iftcb@hasTitle%
        \tcbdimto#1{#1+\ht\tcb@titlebox+\dp\tcb@titlebox+\kvtcb@title@rule+\kvtcb@boxsep*2+\kvtcb@toptitle+\kvtcb@bottomtitle}%
      \fi%
      \tcbdimto#1{\kvtcb@height@fixed-#1}%
    \else%
      \tcbdimto#1{4cm}% fallback
    \fi%
  }},
}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
    \begin{tcbraster}[%
        raster columns=2,
        raster rows=2,
        raster height=\textheight,
        ]
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}\end{tcolorbox}
        \begin{tcolorbox}[title={box 1\\line two},remember height=\myheight]
            \includegraphics[%
            width=\linewidth,
            height=\myheight,
            ]{tikzimage.tikz}
        \end{tcolorbox}
    \end{tcbraster}
\end{document}

Maybe, such on option or something similar whould not be bad as an official option?

[Tex/LaTex] tcolorbox: `height fill` as option to `tcbraster`

A new answer is possible with tcolorbox version 3.90 (2016/02/29). Now, height fill also works for rasters and the text height of a fixed height box is available through \tcbtextheight:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{raster}
\tcbuselibrary{breakable}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.9}
\usepackage{tikzscale}

\begin{filecontents}{tikzimage.tikz}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[xlabel=time,ylabel=value]
    \addplot{x^2};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents}

\begin{document}
\begin{tcolorbox}
    a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a\\a
\end{tcolorbox}
\begin{tcolorbox}
    b\\b\\b\\b\\b
\end{tcolorbox}
\begin{tcbraster}
    \begin{tcolorbox}[height fill,title={box 1\\line two}]
        \includegraphics[width=\linewidth,height=\tcbtextheight]{tikzimage.tikz}
    \end{tcolorbox}
    \begin{tcolorbox}[height fill]
        This box and the box on the left is extendet to fill the page.
    \end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcbraster}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] tcolorbox: get height of actual box from inside box

[Tex/LaTex] tcolorbox: `height fill` as option to `tcbraster`

Related Question