\cline is in tables too thin (when using coloured cells)

Question

I'm having an issue where \cline appears to be drawn under the fill for table colours.

With \hline

With \cline

(to remove the line above the cell I want blank)

The line is still there, only very very thin. This doesn't always display or print. Is there anything simple I can do to fix this?

Here's the source for my example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
%odd/eaven colours for tables
\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white}
%to change cells of the title row 
\newcommand{\titlecol}{\cellcolor{gray!30}}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[!ht]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|l| c c | c c |}
\cline{2-5}
%\hline
\rowcolor{white} %first cell is excluded from the table
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{\titlecol Title1} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{\titlecol Title2} \
\hline
A & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
B & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
C & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
D & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Caption.}
\label{mytable}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Thanks all for your answers and comments!

There's also this, now I know what to search for: Colored tables and cline/hhline

This is what I ended up with (using \hhline{~|--|--|}):

I've only looked briefly, but it looks like this is what the characters in hline do:

• ~ no line for one cell
• | the corner between horizontal and vertical lines, although I'm not sure if I needed the middle one
• - the line for a cell

See the docs

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{hhline}
%odd/eaven colours for tables
\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white}
\newcommand{\titlecol}{\cellcolor{gray!30}}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[!ht]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|l| c c | c c |}
\hhline{~|*4{-}|}
%\cline{2-5}
%\hline
\rowcolor{white}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{\titlecol Title1} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{\titlecol Title2} \
\hline
A & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
B & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
C & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
D & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Caption.}
\label{mytable}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I found out the following: the line is not too thin, it is simply overwritten by the filled cells. Some pdf readers notice the small difference in y-value and paint the line, others don't.

A similar question has been asked here:

\cline doesn't work

I propose you solve this problem with one of the proposed methods as listed in the extended answer on this question.

Answer 3

For information, here is (easy) way to construct that table with {NiceTabular} of nicematrix.

In that environment, there is a key corners to compute the empty corners of the tabular (here the corner in the north-west`). Then the rules, are not drawn in the corners and the instructions of color don't color the cells in the corners.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[!ht]
\centering
\begin{NiceTabular}{|l|cc|cc|}[color-inside,corners=NW] % NW : north-west
\Hline
\rowcolor{gray!30}
& \Block{1-2}{Title1} && \Block{1-2}{Title2} \
\Hline
\rowcolors{gray!10}{}
A & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
B & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
C & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
D & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \
\Hline
\end{NiceTabular}
\caption{Caption.}
\label{mytable}
\end{table}
\end{document}

You need several compilations (because nicematrix uses PGF/TikZ nodes under the hood).