Default low row height of table and tabular environments

Question

Suppose that we have this code:

\begin{table}
\caption{xxxx.}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
  \hline
  \rowcolor{Gray}
  % after \\: \hline or \cline{col1-col2} \cline{col3-col4} ...
  1 & AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/BBBCCCCCCCC \\
  \hline
  2 & SDSDSDSDSD/FDFDFDFDF \\
  \hline
    2 & gGGGGGGGGG/TTTTTTTTTT \\
  \hline
  \rowcolor{Gray}
\end{tabular}
\label{table:QQ}
\end{table}

The output of this table is:

As you can see the height of table rows is not fix with font size (+texts are not in center of every cell/we have tendency to upward) . Why we have this behavior in default table appearance? How can i have a table with better appearance?

your image shows why the baseline in each row is where it is, essentially it is positioned so the latin letters fit from the top of an A to the bottom of a g if you write all uppercase with no descenders that gives the appearance of more space underneath. — David Carlisle, Jan 27 '16 at 20:09
Increasing \arraystretch adds more to the top than the bottom, so 1.5 is just about right. — John Kormylo, Jan 27 '16 at 20:34
the table rows are all the same height in your image (and will be unless you put in over-large content, just as lines of a paragraph are evenly spaced unless you add something unexpended large. — David Carlisle, Jan 27 '16 at 21:29

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 27 '16 at 22:17

You can use the cellspace package, which lets you define a minimal vertical spacing between a row and the above and below rows. Additionnally, I loaded the caption package to ensure a correct vertical spacing between caption and table:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array, caption}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{cellspace}
\setlength\cellspacetoplimit{4pt}
\setlength\cellspacebottomlimit{4pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\caption{xxxx.}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|Sc|Sc|}
  \hline
  \rowcolor{Gray}
  % after \\: \hline or \cline{col1-col2} \cline{col3-col4} ...
  1 & AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/BBBCCCCCCCC \\
  \hline
  2 & SDSDSDSDSD/FDFDFDFDF \\
  \hline
    2 & gGGGGGGGGG/TTTTTTTTTT \\
  \hline
  \rowcolor{Gray}
\end{tabular}
\label{table:QQ}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Default low row height of table and tabular environments

1 Answers1