How to write text that takes up no space?

Question

How does one write text such that whatever comes next is placed as if the text had not been written?

Edit: More specifically, I would like to place text in the top-left corner of a tikzpicture by writing the text right before the figure and anchoring the figure as if the text had not been written. Here is an attempt I made that does not work:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\newcommand{\imagetop}[1]{\vtop{\null\hbox{#1}}}

\makebox(0,0){a}
\imagetop{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \draw (0, 0) rectangle (1, 1); 
    \end{tikzpicture}
}
\makebox(0,0){b}
\imagetop{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \draw (0, 0) rectangle (1, 1); 
    \end{tikzpicture}
}

\end{document}

\documentclass{article} \begin{document} \makebox[0pt][l]{Hello}World \end{document} — LaRiFaRi, May 11 '15 at 14:31
Depending on how you want the no-space text aligned, \makebox[0pt][<alignment>]{text} where <alignment> is l, c, or r. Note that this eliminates the allocated horizontal space of the text. — Steven B. Segletes, May 11 '15 at 14:31
Even \smash{\makebox[0pt][l]{}} does not seem to do the job. I have some text followed by a tikzpicture. The text should go in the top-left corner of the picture by placing the picture as if the text had not been written. I know plenty of work-arounds but I would like to know why smash etc. don't seem to work here. — Max Flow, May 11 '15 at 14:40
Please give us an MWE! Why all the guessing? E.g. there is not even a word about vertical size in your OP. — LaRiFaRi, May 11 '15 at 14:41
I guess that what you need is to change the anchor for the picture. — Sigur, May 11 '15 at 14:48

LaRiFaRi · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-11T16:05:42.727

You will have to give us an MWE in order to help you with smashing your tikzpicture. "does not seem to do the job" is no help for us, trying to help you. The typical approaches for smashing would be:

% arara: lualatex

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage{lua-visual-debug} % leave this away in order to compile with pdfLaTeX

\begin{document}    
% no width  
\makebox[0pt]{Hello}World

\makebox[0pt][l]{Hello}World

% no height and no width
\makebox(0,0){Hello}World

\makebox(0,0)[l]{Hello}World
\end{document}

enter image description here

Edit regarding your posted MWE:

You will have to add a % on the first text line. The new line adds a space if you don't. Just use a left alignment for your box and the word will appear inside the box.

The last point you have to do is to reference the base line to your north side of the square. As I do not know how to reference to the top of a word, I had to apply an yshift here.

% arara: pdflatex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}    
Hello \makebox[0pt][l]{world}% 
    \begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={([yshift=-\heightof{world}]current bounding box.north)}]
    \draw (0, 0) rectangle (1, 1); 
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

@MaxFlow I have added something which addresses your edited question. — LaRiFaRi, May 11 '15 at 16:11

How to write text that takes up no space?

1 Answers1