How to align TikZ picture and text side by side

Question

I want to add a TikZ picture beside a text block

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
  \lipsum[1]
\begin{tikzpicture}[color=white]
\node[fill=blue!70,rotate=90] at (0,0) {Vertical Text on Left};
\end{tikzpicture}
  \lipsum[2]
  \lipsum[3]
\end{document}

but with this structure, the TikZ` picture is inserted at the first line of text, instead of placing side by side.

enter image description here

One solution can be using packages like wrapfig to wrap the text around picture. Isn't there any easier solution to place TikZ figure beside text?

@N3buchadnezzar actually, I'm a big fan of wrapfig; just was curious if there is a simpler solution. — Googlebot, Jul 19 '12 at 22:55

R. Schumacher · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-19T20:55:39.680

3

Use \parbox, I just set the widths as a fraction of \linewidth.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
  \lipsum[1]
\noindent\parbox[][][t]{.05\linewidth}{\begin{tikzpicture}[color=white]
\node[fill=blue!70,rotate=90] at (0,0) {Vertical Text on Left};
\end{tikzpicture}}%
\parbox[][][t]{.95\linewidth}{
  \lipsum[2]
  \lipsum[3]
}
\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jul 19 '12 at 20:55

answered Jul 19 '12 at 20:49

R. Schumacher

9,895

See How to keep a constant \baselineskip when using minipages (or \parboxes)? in terms of your vertical alignment. Perhaps all you need is a \strut in the last line of the paragraph preceding the \parbox (since it doesn't have any descenders). – Werner Jul 19 '12 at 21:00
Can the blue rectangle span multiple pages? – kiss my armpit Jul 19 '12 at 22:47

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 19 '12 at 23:34

Just for reference, here's a solution with wrapfig:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{wrapfig}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{wrapfigure}[10]{L}{.5cm}
\vspace{-\baselineskip}
\begin{tikzpicture}[color=white]
\node[fill=blue!70,rotate=90,minimum width=9\baselineskip,align=center]
at (0,0) {Vertical Text on Left};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{wrapfigure}
\lipsum[2]
\lipsum[3]
\end{document}

(Author: Gonzalo Medina)

zun · Answer 3 · 2012-07-19T23:10:05.117

Here is an answer using the minipage environment. For contrast, \strut is used in one place and \bigkip in another to improve spacing.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{wrapfig}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1] \strut  
\noindent
\begin{minipage}{0.05\textwidth}
\begin{tikzpicture}[color=white]
    \node[fill=blue!70,rotate=90] at (0,0) {Vertical Text on Left};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{minipage} \quad
\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\lipsum[2]
\end{minipage}
\bigskip\lipsum[3]

\end{document}

enter image description here

How to align TikZ picture and text side by side

3 Answers3