General ⇒ That little space between two frameboxes

[cvp]

I didn't realize that space was so holy. I can't get rid of it.

My situation:
I have a framebox, a newline, and another framebox of a different width. I want to fudge that lower framebox up so that the top border of the bottom framebox is touching the bottom border of the top framebox, effectively forming a double-width border where they're in contact.
This seems like something too trivial to turn the entire thing into a tabular, and I figure, as usual, there's something obscure that I'm missing.

Extensive combinations of vspace, addvspace, \\, and raisebox have been tried. While those all work just fine to lower the bottom box, there is always that minimal amount of spacing between their borders when I try to move the bottom box up.

I'm frustrated enough at this point that I'm about to screencap, make that adjustment in mspaint, and then load it as a picture.
Please don't let me have to resort to this.

Thanks.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi cvp,

you could use \vspace with negative space parameter, like

Code: Select all

\framebox[2cm]{text1}

\vspace{-3\fboxrule}
\framebox[2cm]{text2}

or similar just with appropriate space.

Stefan

[cvp]

Stefan,

All of the previously mentioned commands (vspace, addvspace, raisebox) were tried with negative values, and none of them would allow the box to go any higher than 1mm below the previous box.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi cvp,

it works for me. Try this example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\framebox[2cm]{Text1}

\vspace{-3\fboxrule}
\framebox[2cm]{Text2}
\end{document}

Raising the absolute value for \vspace raises the box. Do you get something different?

Stefan

[Juanjo]

Why don't you post a minimal working example showing both boxes? It would be useful to see precisely what are you trying to do.

Edited: I sent this post without reading the preceding one by Stefan_K. Anyway, a MWE would help.

[cvp]

Huh. Fascinating. That paragraph break is what lets it happen, apparently.
Try this:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\noindent \framebox[2cm]{Text1}\\%
\vspace{-3\fboxrule}%
\framebox[2cm]{Text2}
\end{document}

You'll notice that no argument for \vspace will allow it to go higher than a certain amount if you simply use \\ (or \newline or \linebreak to get the next line.
You must have a new paragraph, it seems, in order to shrink that space at all. (I just tried \par, and that allows the space adjustment as I intended.)

Well, my code's going to look ugly as all hell, but at least this will do the trick. Hopefully no one will judge me for the contents of this cls file.

[Juanjo]

Huh. Fascinating. That paragraph break is what lets it happen, apparently.

Yes, it is, but it is not really necessary.

You must have a new paragraph, it seems, in order to shrink that space at all. (I just tried \par, and that allows the space adjustment as I intended.)

No, you mustn't. Try this:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\noindent \framebox[2cm]{Text1}
\vspace{-3\fboxrule}\hfill\mbox{} \\
\framebox[2cm]{Text2}
\end{document}

There is no new paragraph, just a new line in the same paragraph. The \vspace command acts as soon as the current line is filled.

[cvp]

Sure, fine, it doesn't have to be a new paragraph.
It's just that

Code: Select all

\par

is easier to type and more understandable than

Code: Select all

\hfill\mbox{} \\

[Juanjo]

The simplest way:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\noindent \framebox[2cm]{Text1} \\[-3\fboxrule]
\framebox[2cm]{Text2}
\end{document}