Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Spacing of color borders using varwidth and tabular

[cbkschroeder]

Hi,

Thanks for reading my posting.

In the MWE provided, I'd like to increase the "gray border" around the two-line table entries. The single-line entries have perfect spacing, but the two line entries, well, not so much. The characters are right against the gray border.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{varwidth}
\usepackage[smaller,printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}
\usepackage{xfrac} 
\usepackage[load-configurations=binary]{siunitx}

\newcommand{\vw}[2]{\begin{varwidth}{#1}\centering #2\end{varwidth}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\newcommand{\columnwidtha}{2in}
\rowcolors{2}{gray!30}{}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{c} \toprule
    {Material} \\ \midrule \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Aluminum}                         \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\SI{63}{\percent}/\SI{37}{\percent} Sn/Pb (Solder)} \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Silicone}                                  \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{POM} (Delrin)}                         \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Polyimde (Vespel)}                        \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Water}                                     \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Copper}                                    \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{PTFE} (Teflon)}                        \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Borosilicate Glass (Pyrex-7070)}  \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{PCTFE} (Kel-F)}               \\ \addlinespace \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}%

\begin{acronym}
\acro{PCTFE}{Polychlorotrifluoroethelyne}
\acro{POM}{Polyoxymethelyne}
\acro{PTFE}{Polytetrafluoroethylene}
\end{acronym}

\end{document}

My hunch is that this problem has everything to do with the amount of padding that the varwidth environment is giving me. I've chosen to use varwidth --- versus simply, for instance, p{2in} --- so that I can control the line breaking if need be, and still have as thin a table as possible.

If anyone could suggest a solution to the above, I'd be appreciative.

The output of the above is included as an attachment in this posting for reference.

Thanks.

[cbkschroeder]

The answer to this situation is the cellspace package. It allows one to buffer the upper and lower bounds of the row. Note that if one uses this in conjunction with siunitx, then as stated in that package's documentation, one needs to use "C" rather than "S" in the column-type definition of the tabular environment.

I'll add also that in my example above, I've used varwidth in one particular way; varwidth also provides a "V{}" column type which may be helpful.

Hopefully this serves as useful to someone in the future.

Cheers.

[localghost]

A full code example of your solution would be nice. This would much more useful than only descriptions. At the moment I can't figure by myself how you did it.


Best regards
Thorsten

[cbkschroeder]

Absolutely, though the solution is about as minor a change as one could make. The new code is:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{varwidth}
\usepackage[smaller,printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}
\usepackage{xfrac} 
\usepackage[load-configurations=binary]{siunitx}
\usepackage{cellspace}

\newcommand{\vw}[2]{\begin{varwidth}{#1}\centering #2\end{varwidth}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\newcommand{\columnwidtha}{2in}
\rowcolors{2}{gray!30}{}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{Cc} \toprule
    {Material} \\ \midrule \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Aluminum}                         \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\SI{63}{\percent}/\SI{37}{\percent} Sn/Pb (Solder)} \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Silicone}                                  \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{POM} (Delrin)}                         \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Polyimde (Vespel)}                        \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Water}                                     \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Copper}                                    \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{PTFE} (Teflon)}                        \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{Borosilicate Glass (Pyrex-7070)}  \\ \addlinespace
    \vw{\columnwidtha}{\ac{PCTFE} (Kel-F)}               \\ \addlinespace \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}%

\begin{acronym}
\acro{PCTFE}{Polychlorotrifluoroethelyne}
\acro{POM}{Polyoxymethelyne}
\acro{PTFE}{Polytetrafluoroethylene}
\end{acronym}

\end{document}

This differs from the old code in that, in the preamble, I added:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{cellspace}

Furthermore, the line:

Code: Select all

\begin{tabular}{c} \toprule

was changed to:

Code: Select all

\begin{tabular}{Cc} \toprule

which, if I wasn't using siunitx, I think would have looked like:

Code: Select all

\begin{tabular}{Sc} \toprule

instead --- correct me if I'm wrong.

Attached is the new output for consideration. The buffering is alterable as described in the cellspace package documentation, though the above was satisfactory to me.

Hope this is clearer!

Cheers.