Text Wrapping in tikz node doesn't work

Question

I would like have a few fixed nodes of size 1cm x 1cm. However, the text inside these nodes should wrap around.

I used the following questions help to figure out about wrapping text. However it doesn't seem to work.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.75cm,auto   , font=\small]

\tikzstyle{block}=[draw, fill=white, text width=1cm, anchor=west,  minimum height=1cm]

 \node [block] [minimum width=1.5cm, minimum height=1.5cm,align=center] (mb0) {MB};
 \node [block] [right of=mb0] (dmem0) {dmem};
 \node [block] [left of=mb0] (imem0) {imem};
 \node [block] [below of=mb0,align=left] (cmemin0) {cmem\_in};
 \node [block] [right of=cmemin0] (dma0) {DMA};
 \node [block] [right of=dma0] (cmemout0) {cmem\_out};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

However you can see in the picture that the text flows outside the box instead of wrapping around. enter image description here

How do I resolve this situation?

Thanks !

You need some hyphenation points in your text. It doesn't know where to break. For example, if I add the text {sectar-ion} in one of your nodes, it wraps at the hyphen. — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 15 '14 at 13:28
@T.Verron you will see that I have added this option in cmemin0 node, but still the text flows out. — knowledge_seeker, Apr 15 '14 at 13:30
Oh, right, I was only seeing it in "MB". Sorry, deleting my comment. — T. Verron, Apr 15 '14 at 13:31
@StevenB.Segletes It works, but what if I don't want hyphen in the text of my node? — knowledge_seeker, Apr 15 '14 at 13:31
Well a blank space at the desired place (e.g., cmem _out) will allow a line break, but that, of course, is not automatic hyphenation. — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 15 '14 at 13:34
@StevenB.Segletes yes it works. thanks ! its a hack which I didn't know before. — knowledge_seeker, Apr 15 '14 at 13:36
@Raj: Ups! you're right I haven't seen it. In any case where could be cmem_in hyphenated? TeX only know how to break know words, but not estrange ones even more if it contains - or _ — Ignasi, Apr 15 '14 at 13:38
@Ignasi you are right that it doesn't know about the strange words. but just replace the cmem_in by averylonglongstring. I see that the text still overflows. So probably - or space is a must for breaking text. — knowledge_seeker, Apr 15 '14 at 13:41
You can add hyphenation points with \-. It will break the text at that point if need be, otherwise it will be invisible. Still not 100% automatic of course. — T. Verron, Apr 15 '14 at 13:42
You could add \hspace{0pt} at the points in the words where you want to allow a line break. — Ulrike Fischer, Apr 15 '14 at 13:43
@T.Verron Thanks. I couldn't remember the shorthand for \allowbreak. You should offer that as an answer. — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 15 '14 at 13:44

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

So, several problems are stacking in your case.

First, the hyphenation engine cannot guess what is a correct hyphenation for a word like cmem_in. I am not even sure there is such a correct hyphenation.

In this case, you need to marks the points where the break is allowed with \-.

Second, even for "not so strange" words, like "averylonglongstring", the hyphenation does not happen. The reason is given in this question: the first word of a paragraph is not hyphenated by design.

A suggested workaround is to use \hspace{0pt} before such words. Note that in the MWE, longstring still flows out of the box, that's because it is a "strange word" again.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.75cm,auto   , font=\small]

  \tikzstyle{block}=[draw, fill=white, text width=1cm, anchor=west,  minimum height=1cm]

  \node [block] [minimum width=1.5cm, minimum height=1.5cm,align=center] (mb0) {MB};
  \node [block] [right of=mb0] (dmem0) {dmem};
  \node [block] [left of=mb0,align=left] (imem0) {averylonglongstring};
  \node [block] [below of=mb0,align=left] (cmemin0) {cmem\-\_in};
  \node [block] [right of=cmemin0,align=left] (dma0) {\hspace{0pt}averylonglongstring};
  \node [block] [right of=dma0,align=left,text width=1.5cm] (cmemout0) {cmem\-\_out};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 15 '14 at 13:55

The correct code that I finally use would be -

\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=1.85cm,auto, font=\small]

\tikzstyle{block}=[draw, fill=white, text width=1cm, anchor=west, align=center, minimum height=1cm]

 \node [block] [minimum width=1.75cm, minimum height=1.75cm] (mb0) {MB};
 \node [block] [right of=mb0,align=center] (dmem0) {dme m};
 \node [block] [left of=mb0] (imem0) {imem};
 \node [block] [below of=mb0,align=center] (cmemin0) {cme m\_in};
 \node [block] [right of=cmemin0,align=center] (dma0) {DMA};
 \node [block] [right of=dma0,align=center] (cmemout0) {cme m\_out};
\end{tikzpicture}

Text Wrapping in tikz node doesn't work

2 Answers2