unexpected vertical gaps when using tikzpicture

Question

in the following minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage[margin=0mm, noheadfoot]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzpagenodes}
\usetikzlibrary {calc}
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}
\setmainfont{FreeSerif}
\setsansfont{FreeSans}
\setmonofont{FreeMono}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\parindent=0mm
\begin{document}
\eject
\pdfpagewidth=320mm
\pdfpageheight=220mm
% page#cover
\setcounter{page}{0}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
\draw node[anchor=north west, inner sep=0] at (10mm, -10mm) {
  \includegraphics[width=300mm, height=200mm]{example-image}
};
\draw[anchor=north west, black]
  (10mm, 0mm) --
  (10mm, -10mm) --
  (0mm, -10mm);
\draw[anchor=north west, black]
  (310mm, -220mm) --
  (310mm, -210mm) --
  (320mm, -210mm);


\fontsize{64}{76}\selectfont
  \draw node[anchor=north west] at (155mm, -20mm) {
    \hyphenpenalty 10000
    \exhyphenpenalty 10000
    \begin{minipage}{160mm}
      \rightskip=0pt plus .2\hsize
      \centering
      \textcolor{blue}{
        Title title
      }
    \end{minipage}
  };
\end{tikzpicture}
\eject
\pdfpagewidth=440mm
\pdfpageheight=220mm
% page#1
\setcounter{page}{1}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
\draw node[anchor=north west, inner sep=0] at (10mm, -10mm) {
  \includegraphics[width=200mm, height=200mm]{example-image}
};
\draw[anchor=north west, black]
  (10mm, 0mm) --
  (10mm, -10mm) --
  (0mm, -10mm);
\draw[anchor=north west, black]
  (210mm, -220mm) --
  (210mm, -210mm) --
  (220mm, -210mm);


\fontsize{18}{21}\selectfont
  \draw node[anchor=north west] at (30mm, -30mm) {
    \hyphenpenalty 10000
    \exhyphenpenalty 10000
    \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
      \rightskip=0pt plus .2\hsize
      \textcolor{red}{
        some example text
      }
    \end{minipage}
  };
\fontsize{18}{21}\selectfont
  \draw node[anchor=north west] at (15mm, -195mm) {
    \hyphenpenalty 10000
    \exhyphenpenalty 10000
    \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
      \rightskip=0pt plus .2\hsize
      3
    \end{minipage}
  };
\end{tikzpicture}
% page#2
\setcounter{page}{2}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
\draw node[anchor=north west, inner sep=0] at (230mm, -10mm) {
  \includegraphics[width=200mm, height=200mm]{example-image}
};
\draw[black]
  (230mm, 0mm) --
  (230mm, -10mm) --
  (220mm, -10mm);
\draw[black]
  (430mm, -220mm) --
  (430mm, -210mm) --
  (440mm, -210mm);


\fontsize{18}{21}\selectfont
  \draw node[anchor=north west] at (230mm, -30mm) {
    \hyphenpenalty 10000
    \exhyphenpenalty 10000
    \begin{minipage}{160mm}
      \rightskip=0pt plus .2\hsize
      \textcolor{purple}{
        some example text
      }
    \end{minipage}
  };
\fontsize{18}{21}\selectfont
  \draw node[anchor=north west] at (420mm, -195mm) {
    \hyphenpenalty 10000
    \exhyphenpenalty 10000
    \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
      \rightskip=0pt plus .2\hsize
      4
    \end{minipage}
  };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

it renders the following:

and

... in the 1st PDF page, the whole thing is shifted down by a few mm

... and in the 2nd PDF page, the left tikzimage is shifted down by a few mm again, and then the right tikzimage is shifted down by a further few mm.

worth noting that these gaps are vertical-only, whatever is causing these gaps do not appear to have any horizontal effect.

what is causing these unexpected "gaps"? how to remove them?

Ivan · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-27T14:09:52.543

As explained here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/55420/231952, «what TikZ needs is to know the paper dimensions and apparently it uses \paperwidth and \paperheight». So you need to set also \paperwidth and \paperheight. I can not explain why TikZ create those gaps but you can remove them by using the current page nodes. In such a case you can do without geometry as well:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
%\usepackage[margin=0mm, noheadfoot]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\eject
\pdfpagewidth=320mm
\pdfpageheight=220mm
\paperwidth=320mm
\paperheight=220mm
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
 \draw node[anchor=north west, inner sep=0,xshift=10mm,yshift=-10mm] at (current page.north west) {%
  \includegraphics[width=300mm, height=200mm]{example-image}};
\end{tikzpicture}
\eject
\pdfpagewidth=440mm
\pdfpageheight=220mm
\paperwidth=440mm
\paperheight=220mm
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
 \draw node[anchor=north west, inner sep=0,xshift=10mm,yshift=-10mm] at (current page.north west) {
  \includegraphics[width=200mm, height=200mm]{example-image}};
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
 \draw node[anchor=north east, inner sep=0,xshift=-10mm,yshift=-10mm] at (current page.north east) {%
  \includegraphics[width=200mm, height=200mm]{example-image}};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

hmmm.. ok that appears to have worked for my images, but I got stuck trying to apply the same pattern to my lines, e.g.
\draw[black, anchor=north west, inner sep=0, outer sep=0] at (current page.north west) (230mm, 0mm) -- (230mm, -10mm) -- (220mm, -10mm); ``` yields ``` ! Use of \@next doesn't match its definition. l.117 ...=north west, inner sep=0, outer sep=0] at (current page.north west) ``` — bguiz, Mar 27 '21 at 14:41
is there a way to use a at (current page.north west) on a regular draw command without a node? — bguiz, Mar 27 '21 at 14:42
figured out how to do ^ using /node --> /tikz --> /draw — bguiz, Mar 28 '21 at 15:42

unexpected vertical gaps when using tikzpicture

1 Answers1