How to mimic StackExchange-style inline code in LaTeX

Question

I love the way StackExchange formats inline code, using both a fixed width font and a gray background.

How can I mimic the above sentence in LaTeX?

One possibility might be using a combination of the listings, helvet, and inconsolata packages (in addition to the geometry package). Here is an attempt:

\documentclass{article}
% Implement 1-inch margins using 'geometry' package
% ('geometry' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry)
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
% Implement inline code using 'listings' package
% ('listings' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/listings)
\usepackage{listings}
% Implement Helvetica using 'helvet' package
% ('helvet' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/helvet)
% (use code snippet from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/121063/15622/)
\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}
\renewcommand\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
% Implement Inconsolata, a Consolas-like font, using 'inconsolata' package
% ('inconsolata' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/inconsolata)
\usepackage{inconsolata}
\lstset{basicstyle=\ttfamily}
\begin{document}
\section*{Attempt to mimic StackExchange inline code}
\noindent I love the way StackExchange \lstinline|formats inline code|,
using both a \lstinline|fixed width font| and \lstinline|a gray background|.
\end{document}

• However, I'm not sure how to obtain the gray background. How can I do this?

• In what other ways can my attempt be improved to mimic StackExchange-style inline code?

Answer 1

A solution which requires the use of LuaLaTeX.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{luacolor}
\usepackage{lua-ul}
\NewDocumentCommand{\Code}{v}{\highLight[gray!20]{\texttt{#1}}}
\begin{document}
I love the way StackExchange \Code!formats inline code!, using both a \Code!fixed width font! and 
\Code!a gray background!.
\end{document}

Answer 2

There is the soul package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{soul, xcolor}
\colorlet{tsecolor}{gray!20}
\sethlcolor{tsecolor}
\newcommand{\tse}[1]{\hl{\texttt{#1}}}
\begin{document}
\noindent I love the way StackExchange \tse{formats inline code},
using both a \tse{fixed width font} and \tse{a gray background}.
\end{document}

Answer 3

Here's an option using tcolorbox and soulpos, adapted from my answer here. It supports line breaking and any customization available to tcolorbox commands. The command \mycode can be used like \mycode{<code>} or \mycode<char><code><char>, e.g. \mycode|bla|, \mycode!bla!, ... The latter syntax allows <code> to contain \{ and \}.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{soulpos}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\newtcbox{\mybox}[1][]{
  on line,
  arc=1pt, outer arc=2pt,
  colback=lightgray!50!white, colframe=lightgray!50!white,
  boxsep=0pt, left=0pt, right=-1pt, top=2pt, bottom=0pt,
  boxrule=0pt, #1
}
\ulposdef\codeulinner[xoffset-start=1pt]{%
    \ifulstarttype{0}%
        {\tcbset{ULsiderule/.append style={leftrule=1pt}}}%
        {\tcbset{ULsiderule/.append style={leftrule=0pt,sharp corners=west}}}%
    \ifulendtype{0}%
        {\tcbset{ULsiderule/.append style={rightrule=1pt}}}%
        {\tcbset{ULsiderule/.append style={rightrule=0pt,sharp corners=east}}}%
    \mybox[ULsiderule]{\vphantom{Ap}\rule{\ulwidth}{0pt}}%
  }
\NewDocumentCommand{\mycode}{v}{%
  \begingroup\ttfamily
  \codeulinner{#1}%
  \endgroup%
  }
\begin{document}
Some code: \mycode{\command _^%&}
Some text. \mycode{This is very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long inline code.} Some more text.
\end{document}

Correct output will require two compilations.

Answer 4

You can use soul and verbatim mode.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{soul,xcolor}
\makeatletter
\def\SOUL@hlpreamble{%
    \setul{2ex}{3.5ex}%
    \let\SOUL@stcolor\SOUL@hlcolor
    \SOUL@stpreamble
}
\makeatother
\NewDocumentCommand{\Code}{v}{%
  \begingroup\ttfamily
  \sethlcolor{black!15}%
  \hl{,,#1,,}%
  \endgroup
}
\begin{document}
\Code!\LaTeX{{| y{!
\end{document}

Answer 5

Here, I adapt the censor package, to introduce \seh (stack-exchange highlight). The result handles line breaking. I note that while (in my case) the TeXworks viewer shows the result in a somewhat choppy fashion, looking at the PDF with a PDF viewer such as Adobe (shown in the result below) presents as intended.

A bonus of the censor approach is that most inline math can also be handled directly.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{censor,xcolor}
\makeatletter
\def\censorcolor{gray!30}
\censorruledepth=-.9\dp\strutbox% -0.3ex DEFAULT
\censorruleheight=.9\dimexpr\dp\strutbox+\ht\strutbox%  2.1ex DEFAULT
\newlength\wo@pb
\renewcommand\@cenword[1]{%
  \setlength\wo@pb{\widthofpbox{\ttfamily#1}}%
  \censorrule{\wo@pb}\kern-\wo@pb\texttt{#1}}
\def\censpace{{\color{\censorcolor}%
  \leaders\hrule height \dimexpr\censorruleheight+\censorruledepth\relax
    depth -\censorruledepth
  \hskip\fontdimen2\font plus \fontdimen3\font minus \fontdimen4\font
  \mbox{}}}
\let\sv@censpace\censpace
\let\svcensorrule\censorrule
\renewcommand\censorrule[1]{\textcolor{\censorcolor}{\svcensorrule{#1}}}
\makeatother
\let\seh\xblackout
\begin{document}
I love the way StackExchange \seh{formats inline code}, using both a 
\seh{fixed width font} and \seh{a gray background}.
One can even do this with \seh{inline math: $y=\alpha x^{2\beta} + 1$}.
\end{document}

Answer 6

One possibility might be to eliminate use of the listings package altogether, and use tikz to encode gray background, as in this answer to this question.

• A disadvantage is that I don't think it's possible to typeset special characters like braces {} and brackets [] in this way.

\documentclass{article}
% Implement 1-inch margins using 'geometry' package
% ('geometry' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry)
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
% Implement Helvetica using 'helvet' package
% ('helvet' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/helvet)
% (use code snippet from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/121063/15622/)
\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}
\renewcommand\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
% Implement Inconsolata, a Consolas-like font, using 'inconsolata' package
% ('inconsolata' package: https://ctan.org/pkg/inconsolata)
\usepackage{inconsolata}
%\lstset{basicstyle=\ttfamily}
% Implement gray background using \mbox and the 'tikz' package 
% ('tikz' package: https://tikz.dev/)
% (use code snippet from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/663945/15622)
\usepackage{tikz}
\tikzset{%
  baseline,
  inner sep=2pt,
  minimum height=12pt,
  rounded corners=2pt
}
\newcommand{\code}[1]{\mbox{%
  \ttfamily
  \tikz \node[anchor=base,fill=black!12]{#1};%
}}
\begin{document}
\section*{Attempt to mimic StackExchange inline code}
\noindent I love the way StackExchange \code{formats inline code},
using both a \code{fixed width font} and \code{a gray background}.
\end{document}