[Tex/LaTex] Vertically center cells with fixed height

tablesvertical alignment

Consider the solution https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/12762/4011 to the problem of fixing the height of a cell in tabular. This essentially adds some space above the cell content, so it is not warranted that it is always vertically centered. Just changing p-cell to m-cell doesn't solve this. So how can I modify this to ensure a vertical centering of the every cell content?

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{array}  

\begin{document} 

\newcolumntype{C}[1]{%
 >{\vbox to 5ex\bgroup\vfill\centering}%
 p{#1}%
 <{\egroup}}  

\begin{tabular}{|c | C{3cm} | C{5cm} |} 
 \hline 
 Short Text & Short Text & Short Text \tabularnewline \hline
Short Text  & Short Text & Loooooooooo  oooooooooooong Text \tabularnewline \hline  
Short Text  & Short Text & Loooooooooooooooooooooong Text \tabularnewline \hline 
\end{tabular}    
\end{document}

Best Answer

You can just add a \vfill before the \egroup, but then you will notice the result is too high, by about \baselineskip, so you should backup by this amount too:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{array}  

\begin{document} 

\showoutput

\newcolumntype{C}[1]{%
 >{\vbox to 5ex\bgroup\vfill\centering\arraybackslash}%
 p{#1}%
 <{\vskip-\baselineskip\vfill\egroup}}  

 \begin{tabular}{|c | C{3cm} | C{5cm} |}
   \hline 
   Short Text & Short Text & Short Text \\ \hline
   Short Text  & Short Text & Loooooooooo  oooooooooooong Text \\ \hline  
   Short Text  & Short Text & Loooooooooooooooooooooong Text \\ \hline
   Short Text  & Several pieces of text to fill up this box & Not much
   \\ \hline   
 \end{tabular}    
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to vertically-center the text of the cells

Edit: The existence of this new answer has made my answer now obsolete and embarrassing. Please proceed to the new answer and vote it up.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a4paper,vmargin=2cm,hmargin=1cm,showframe]{geometry}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{longtable}

\parindent=0pt

\def\correction#1{%
    \abovedisplayshortskip=#1\baselineskip\relax\belowdisplayshortskip=#1\baselineskip\relax%
    \abovedisplayskip=#1\baselineskip\relax\belowdisplayskip=#1\baselineskip\relax}

\arrayrulewidth=1pt\relax
\tabcolsep=5pt\relax
\arrayrulecolor{red}
\fboxsep=\tabcolsep\relax
\fboxrule=\arrayrulewidth\relax

\newcolumntype{A}[2]{%
    >{\minipage{\dimexpr#1\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-#2\arrayrulewidth\relax}\vspace\tabcolsep}%
    c<{\vspace\tabcolsep\endminipage}}
    

\newenvironment{Table}[4]{%
    \longtable{%
        |A{#1}{1.5}% for figure
        |>{\centering$\displaystyle}A{#2}{1}<{$}% for inline equation
        |>{\correction{-1}\strut\[}A{#3}{1}<{\]\strut}% for displayed equation
        |>{\centering}A{#4}{1.5}% for text
        |}\hline\ignorespaces}{%
    \endlongtable\ignorespacesafterend}

\newcommand{\dummy}{%
    It is practically a big lie that \LaTeX\ 
    makes you focus on the content without
    bothering about the layout.}


\newcommand{\Row}{%
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{newton}&
    \frac{a+b}{a-b}=0&
    \int_a^b f(x)\, \textrm{d}x=\frac{b-a}{b+a}&
    \fcolorbox{cyan}{yellow}{\parbox{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}{\dummy}}
    \tabularnewline\hline}

\begin{document}
\begin{Table}{0.25}{0.25}{0.25}{0.25}
\Row
\Row
\end{Table}

\def\x{\centering$\displaystyle\int_a^bf(x)\,\textrm{d}x=\frac{a-b}{a+b}$}

\longtable{|A{0.2}{1.5}*2{|A{0.25}{1}}|A{0.3}{1.5}|}\hline
\x & \x & \multicolumn{2}{A{0.55}{1.5}|}{\x} \tabularnewline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{|A{0.45}{1.5}|}{\x} & \x & \x\tabularnewline\hline 
\x & \multicolumn{2}{A{0.5}{1}|}{\x} & \x\tabularnewline\hline 
\multicolumn{4}{|A{1}{2}|}{\x}\tabularnewline\hline 
\endlongtable
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Vertically center cells of a table

Vertically centering cell entries is possible via the m{<width>} column type from the array package. Horizontal centering is obtained by prepending the column entries with \centering\arraybackslash (also supported by array). For completeness and brevity, the MWE below defines the new column type M which does all of the above:

enter image description here

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
%\usepackage{showframe}% http://ctan.org/pkg/showframe
\usepackage[margin=1.0in]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/margin
\usepackage{booktabs}% http://ctan.org/pkg/booktabs
\usepackage{array}% http://ctan.org/pkg/array
\newcolumntype{M}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{\dimexpr.25\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{MMMM}
    \toprule
    A & B & D & E \\
    \midrule
    \rule{15pt}{10pt} & One & Two & Three \\ 
    \rule{15pt}{10pt} & Three & One & Two \\ 
    \rule{15pt}{10pt} & Two & Three & One \\ 
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

For images, I've used \rule{15pt}{10pt}, although the above solution works for any image size.

The table width is also chosen to fit exactly within the text block, making each of the four columns the same width (.25\linewidth-2\tabcolsep). To see this, uncomment the showframe package which highlights the text block boundary.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to vertically-center the text of the cells

[Tex/LaTex] Vertically center cells of a table

Related Question