4

I've been able to make tikz matrix look like basic tabular, but it implies the use of "text height=..." and "text depth=...", which need to be readjusted everytime a new font or a different font size is used. The problem when using "minimum height=..." with "nodes={anchor=center}" is that the horizontal alignment is broken. Without "nodes={anchor=center}" the cells are not aligned most of the time (it depends on the content of the cells), but the text is.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[verbose,vmargin=30mm,hmargin=20mm]{geometry}


\usepackage{showframe}
\renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
\renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}


\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning, matrix,calc}


\tikzset{
  allmatrix/.style = {matrix of nodes, nodes in empty cells,
                    row sep=-\pgflinewidth, column sep=-\pgflinewidth,}}


\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\begin{document}


\begin{tikzpicture}
\matrix at (0,0) [allmatrix,matrix anchor=north west,inner sep=0pt,nodes={
inner sep=3pt,outer sep=0pt,draw,minimum height=6mm,text width=4mm}]{
a & b & c \
d & e & f \
};
\end{tikzpicture}
\par
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
\hline
a & b & c \
\hline
d & e & f \
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

user1850133
  • 962

2 Answers2

3

You need to define text height and nodes anchors. For example as is done in the following example:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[verbose,
            vmargin=30mm,hmargin=20mm]{geometry}

\usepackage{showframe}
\renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
\renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}


\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix}


\tikzset{
  allmatrix/.style = {matrix of nodes, 
                      nodes in empty cells,
                      row sep=-\pgflinewidth, 
                      column sep=-\pgflinewidth}
        }


\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\begin{document}


\matrix at (0,0) [allmatrix,
                  matrix anchor=north west,
                  inner sep=0pt,
                  nodes={draw,
                         text height=2.4ex, 
                         text depth=1ex, 
                         text width=6mm, align=center,
                         anchor=center}
                  ]
{
a & b & c \
d & e & f \
};
\end{tikzpicture}
\par
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
\hline
a & b & c \
\hline
d & e & f \
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Zarko
  • 296,517
3

The environment {NiceTabular} of nicematrix is an environment {tabular} (of the package array) which creates PGF/Tikz nodes under the cells, rows and columns.

Here is an example:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix,tikz}

\begin{document}
Here is a classical \verb|{tabular}| (of the package \verb|array|).
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
\hline
a & b & c \
\hline
d & e & f \
\hline
\end{tabular}


\bigskip
Here is an \verb|{NiceTabular}| (of the package \verb|nicematrix|).
\begin{NiceTabular}{|c|c|c|}
\Hline
a & b & c \
\Hline
d & e & f \
\Hline
\CodeAfter
\tikz \draw [red,thick] (2-|2) rectangle (3-|3) ; 
\end{NiceTabular}
\end{document}

Output of the above code

As illustration, in the second tabular, I have drawn the red frame with the following instruction:

\tikz \draw [red,thick] (2-|2) rectangle (3-|3) ;

That shows that you have access via Tikz to the individual cells of the tabular with exactly the same delimitations as the cells of the {tabular}.

F. Pantigny
  • 40,250
  • Remark: The package nicematrix provides tools to draw the red frame without using explicitely Tikz (with the command \Block). Here, I have used Tikz only as an illustration. – F. Pantigny Mar 04 '22 at 10:48
  • this is nice indeed but it changes wholly the way i do my document since i only use tikz nodes to place my images, tables, texts where i want. For example i place an image at (current page text area.north) [anchor=north] (myimage), and i need a table at (myimage.north west) [matrix anchor=north east] an one at (myimage.north east) [matrix anchor=north west]. I do not see how to do that without tikz. – user1850133 Mar 05 '22 at 12:43
  • how would you do this englishcol/.style={column #1/.append style={execute at begin node=\begin{english},execute at end node=\end{english}} with nicematrix? – user1850133 Mar 05 '22 at 16:35
  • Maybe \begin{NiceTabular}{>{\begin{english}c<{\end{english}ccc} etc. – F. Pantigny Mar 05 '22 at 17:37