[Tex/LaTex] Tip on how to make a visually good table

booktabstablestypography

I'm using booktabs to make most of the tables in my thesis. However, I'm not sure if that is the best solution for tables with more than 6-7 rows, as it can be difficult to read (there is no line seperating the rows).

If you feel you are good at making visually good tables, I'd like you to make a proposal for the following table (made in Word to illustrate the content and size):

enter image description here

The table is meant to illustrate different simulation cases. The Y illustrates that the specific case make use of the method mentioned in the first row in each column.

Best Answer

I suggest you read the booktabs package documentation. Very good advices are given in there about table formatting and I think it is a good introduction on the subject.

About your example, the reference mentioned above provides the following guidelines:

Never, ever use vertical rules.
Never use double rules.

You may also add some zebra stripes to guide the eye horizontally with the command rowcolors using the package xcolor. This practice is however often unnecessary for tables that are completely filled with values. There is an interesting discussion on Edward Tufte’s Web forum about this subject as well as in this thread on TeX.SX.

When dealing with float numbers instead of letters, they should be align with the decimal using either the dcolumn or siunitx package. The precision of the float numbers within a same column should be kept as consistent as possible.

Here is proposition of a MWE for the example you provided :

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[svgnames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage[tableposition=above]{caption}
\usepackage{pifont}

\newcommand*\CHECK{\ding{51}}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
    \centering
    \caption{MWE of a table using booktabs}
    \rowcolors{5}{}{gray!10}
    \begin{tabular}{*4c}
        \toprule
        & \multicolumn{3}{c}{methods tested} \\
        \cmidrule(lr){2-4}
        Case & Heat  & Exhaust & Outdoor \\    
        \#   & Wheel & Air     & Air     \\
        \midrule
        1 &        & \CHECK &        \\
        2 &        &        & \CHECK \\
        3 &        & \CHECK & \CHECK \\
        4 & \CHECK &        &        \\
        5 & \CHECK & \CHECK &        \\
        6 & \CHECK &        & \CHECK \\
        7 & \CHECK & \CHECK & \CHECK \\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Which results in this table:

enter image description here

I've broken the column titles in two lines to reduce the width of the columns. In addition to make the table looks better, it also helps the horizontal readability.
I replaced the horizontal lines by light toned zebra lines. In my opinion, for this example, this is totally acceptable to add zebra lines since rows are independent from each other.
I replaced the 'Y' symbol by a checkmark symbol as suggested by @moose.
I removed the word 'Case' before each number to avoid unecessary repetition of the information.
I added the meta-title 'methods tested' and the title 'Case' for the first column. I believe that a table should be relatively standalone. A reader should be able to grasp the structure and have an idea of the meaning of every elements of the table just by looking at it. Details could be added in the title or as a table note. If the reader have to go within the text to understand the table, it is a no-go in my opinion. This practice also allows to more easily refer to the various elements of the table in the text.

Here is another example of a table I have produced for my thesis that gives an example with float numbers using the siunitx package:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs, siunitx}
\usepackage[svgnames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage[tableposition=above]{caption}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
    \centering
    \caption{MWE of a table using booktabs and siunitx with floats}
    \begin{tabular}{
        l
        S[table-format = 3]
        S[table-format = 2]
        S[table-format = 1.3]
        S[table-format = -2.2]
        S[table-format = 1.3]
        S[table-format = 1.3]
        S[table-format = 2.2]
        }
        \toprule
        \multicolumn{3}{c}{} & 
        \multicolumn{5}{c}{Brooks-Corey model parameters}\\
        \cmidrule(lr){4-8}        
        & {Sand} & {Clay} & {$\lambda$} & {$\psi_e$} & {$\theta_r$} & {$\theta_{sat}$} & {$K_{sat}$} \\
        Texture Class & {(\si{\percent})} & {(\si{\percent})} & {(-)} & {(\si{cm})} & {(\si{m^3/m^3})} & {(\si{m^3/m^3})} & {(\si{cm/h})} \\
        \midrule
        Sand       & 100 & 0  & 0.592 & -7.26 & 0.020 & 0.437 & 21.00 \\
        Loamy Sand &  85 & 5  & 0.474 & -8.69 & 0.035 & 0.437 &  6.11 \\
        Sandy Loam &  65 & 10 & 0.322 &-14.66 & 0.041 & 0.453 &  2.59 \\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Which results in this table:

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Professional-looking tables with alternating row colors

Zebra stripes – as they’re called – may sometimes be better than nothing, but it’s still bad table design. See this discussion on Edward Tufte’s Web forum, which references a chapter in his book Envisioning Information (which doesn’t actually have any dicussion on zebra stripes in tables, but is still a wonderful book).

The problem zebra stripes tries to solve is that cell contents of neighbouring columns are too far apart, making it difficult to follow the content along rows. Here’s my list of suggestions for improving a table where you think you need zebra stripes, roughly in order.

Abbreviate the column headers. Often the content cells contain little information, e.g., a two-digit number, but the wide column header cells make the column much too wide.
If you can’t abbreviate the column header, split it into two (or more) rows.
Slightly rotate the column headers, perhaps 20 degrees, so they don’t take up much horizontal space. How to do this is LaTeX is a separate question. :)
Sometimes you can actually just get rid of the entire header row, as the meaning of each column is obvious.
Add extra space between rows, so that the rows actually feel like separate rows. You usually don’t need much extra space.
Add small, vertically centred horizontal leader dots between or inside the cells. This is especially useful if some of the cells are empty. How to best do this in LaTeX is of course also a separate question.
A combination of some or all of the above.

If, and only if, the above doesn’t help, i.e., you need long column headings, with narrow or empty content cells, large intercolumn space, and you need to conserve vertical space, then you may consider using zebra stripes, knowing that it’s still bad table design. Luckily, there are actually a few tricks you can use to reduce the damage:

Use spans of rows with the same colour, which look much better than simply alternating zebra stripes. For example, colour rows 1–3 light blue, rows 4–6 white, rows 6–9 light blue, rows 10–12 white, etc. This greatly reduces the problem of seemingly flickering rows. When using three rows, it’s easy to recognise the first, middle and last row in each ‘group’, and much harder to ‘get lost’ (i.e., read the wrong row when moving between columns) than when using simply alternating row colours. Groups of five also work well.
Note that the important thing here is grouping of rows into three or five rows. And you don’t actually need colours for that! Just separate the groups with some vertical whitespace or a very faint or dotted lightly coloured horizontal line.
Make the two background colours very light or similar. The blue one used in your example is too dark, IMHO. But when lightening the colour, do print the document to make sure the light blue colour is still visibly different from white, as many printers aren’t very good at printing very light colours.

The largest problem with the grouping above is that you visually imply a logical grouping that just doesn’t exist. That’s one good reason to avoid zebra stripes. And, as shown earlier in my answer, they aren’t even necessary, so do avoid them if you appreciate good table design.

[Tex/LaTex] How to increase row height while using booktabs

For single lines booktabs provides \addlinespace:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}\centering
\begin{tabular}{lrc} 
\toprule[2pt]
a & b & c \\ 
\cmidrule[1pt](rl){1-3}
d & e & f \\ 
j & k & l \\ 
\addlinespace[0.5em]
g & h & i \\ 
\bottomrule[2pt] 
\end{tabular}\caption{abcde}
\end{table}
\end{document}

screenshot taken from Beamer document

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Professional-looking tables with alternating row colors

[Tex/LaTex] How to increase row height while using booktabs

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