tcolorbox and tikz: two pictures in two columns

Question

Basically I want two tikzpictures of the same size aligned in two columns. To realise this I use the tcolorbox package with its \tcbsidebyside{}-command. The problem is that the picture in the second column has the wrong size and I have no idea why.

How can I get two tikzpictures of the same size with a small gap between them with the help of the \tscsidebyside-command?

In the following pictures the green boxes show what I'm looking for...

MWE

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, parskip=full]{scrartcl}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}

\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\tcbsidebyside[
    sidebyside adapt=left,
    blanker,
    sidebyside gap=0.5\baselineskip,
    sidebyside align=top seam
]
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\linewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}
{
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\tcbsidebyside[
    sidebyside adapt=left,
    blanker,
    sidebyside gap=0.5\baselineskip,
    sidebyside align=top seam
]
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\linewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\linewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\end{document}

The \linewidth changes inside tcbsidebyside. And due to the sidebyside adapt=left the sides are not handled in the same way. Store the linewidth outside e.g. with \newlength\mylinewidth \mylinewidth=\linewidth and then use \mylinewidth for the scale factor. — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 28 '16 at 09:29

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '16 at 10:44

\tcbsidebyside changes internally \linewidth, and as you are using the sidebyside adapt=left, both sides are not affected in the same way. It is better to use an independant length for the scaling.

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, parskip=full]{scrartcl}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}

\newlength\mylinewidth
\AtBeginDocument{\mylinewidth=\linewidth\relax}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\tcbsidebyside[
    sidebyside adapt=left,
    blanker,
    sidebyside gap=0.5\baselineskip,
    sidebyside align=top seam
]
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\mylinewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}
{
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.


\tcbsidebyside[
    sidebyside adapt=left,
    blanker,
    sidebyside gap=0.5\baselineskip,
    sidebyside align=top seam
]
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\mylinewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}
{
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\mylinewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\end{document}

In my opinion it is better to use (\mylinewidth-0.5\baselineskip)/20cm instead of \mylinewidth/20cm as a scale factor. Am I right? PS: 0.5\baselineskip is the gap between both pictures in this case. — Andreas Schneider, Jun 28 '16 at 10:50
Sounds ok (but I don't know where the 20cm comes from). I didn't really check, what tcolorbox is doing with \linewidth in parts. — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 28 '16 at 11:28
The width of my tikzpicture is 10cm (to be exact: 9.90cm). To scale it relativly to the linewidth someone can use e.g. scale=\linewidth/10cm (source: link). I use 20cm so that I can align two pictures next to each other. — Andreas Schneider, Jun 28 '16 at 11:41

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Although this answer does not uses \tscsidebyside as the OP explicitly requested, I'm leaving it as a reference which may be useful to other readers.

Original Answer

You don't need to use tcolorbox for the single purpose of putting things side-by-side. You can use \parbox or other standard latex environments to put blocks of text side-by-side, and you don't require any special environment to put tikzpictures side by side, but only to adjust if required the baseline of the figure.

For more info, see this question, or this answer and also the following MWE:

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, parskip=full]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\textwidth/20cm, baseline=(current bounding box.north)]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
\end{tikzpicture}\hspace{1mm}
\parbox[t]{0.5\textwidth}{\vskip0pt
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.


    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\linewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}\hspace{1mm}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\linewidth/20cm]
        \draw[step=1,help lines,black!20] (-4.95,-3.45) grid (4.95,3.45);
        \draw[thick] (-2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
        \draw[thick] (2.5,0) ellipse [x radius=2.25, y radius=3.4];
    \end{tikzpicture}%

\end{document}

tcolorbox and tikz: two pictures in two columns

2 Answers2