How do I draw a vertical dotted line separating two columns?

Question

multicol or memoir would be preferred. \columnseprule, I understand, is responsible for drawing a solid vertical line between columns. Is there a parsimonious way to achieve the following?

-----pretext---
###### : ######
###### : ######
###### : ######
###### : ######
###### : ######
###### : ######
-----posttext--

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 29 '15 at 17:54

Here is a solution

\documentclass[twocolumn]{memoir}

\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd{\@outputdblcol}{\vrule\@width\columnseprule}{\rotatebox{90}{\parbox{\textheight}{\dotfill}}}{}{}
\makeatother

\usepackage{lipsum}



\begin{document}
\lipsum
\end{document}

Gonzalo Medina · Answer 2 · 2015-07-29T20:26:46.177

7

This is a preliminary version uing the multicol package as requested:

\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzmark}
\usepackage{lipsum}
%
\newcounter{mymulticol}
\setlength\columnsep{20pt}
%
\makeatletter
\def\LR@dotcolumn@boxes{%
     \process@cols\mult@gfirstbox{%
       \ifdim\dp\count@>\dimen\tw@
         \global\dimen\tw@\dp\count@ \fi
       \mc@col@status@write
       \box\count@\hss{\columnseprulecolor\tikzmark{middle-\themymulticol}\vrule
              \@width\columnseprule}\hss}%
     \ifdim\dp\mult@rightbox>\dimen\tw@
       \global\dimen\tw@\dp\mult@rightbox \fi
     \mc@lastcol@status@write
     \box\mult@rightbox\stepcounter{mymulticol}\tikzmark{end-\themymulticol}%
}
\newcommand\LRdotmulticolcolumns
    {\let\mc@align@columns
      \LR@dotcolumn@boxes}
\LRdotmulticolcolumns
\AtBeginEnvironment{multicols}{\stepcounter{mymulticol}\tikzmark{start-\themymulticol}}     

\AtEndEnvironment{multicols}{%
\raisebox{0pt}[0pt][0pt]{\tikz[remember picture,overlay]{
  \draw[dotted] 
    ([yshift=-17pt]{{pic cs:middle-\themymulticol}|-{pic cs:start-\themymulticol}}) --
    ([yshift=-2pt]{{pic cs:middle-\themymulticol}|-{pic cs:end-\themymulticol}});
}}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\lipsum[4]
\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[4]
\end{multicols}
\lipsum[4]
\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[4]
\end{multicols}
\lipsum[4]

\end{document}

The result:

The code needs two runs for the dotted lines to reach their final positions

The result:

edited Jul 29 '15 at 20:26

answered Jul 29 '15 at 16:11

Gonzalo Medina

505,128

Parsimonious enough, but not correct enough. I've been trying to make the vertical line appear dotted. – Simon Kuang Jul 29 '15 at 16:12
@SimonKuang I see. Give me some seconds :) – Gonzalo Medina Jul 29 '15 at 16:12
@SimonKuang It were 3hours instead of some seconds (and it's still a preliminary solution), but I updated the answer. – Gonzalo Medina Jul 29 '15 at 20:27
Would it be possible to make this work across page breaks? (e.g. \lipsum inside multicols) – Simon Kuang Aug 03 '15 at 18:39
@SimonKuang Yes, it's possible, but it requires some more work. When I have the time, I'll update the answer. – Gonzalo Medina Aug 03 '15 at 20:19
Hi! I was wondering if it was possible to increase the size of the circles and make them larger and/or darker? Thank you so much for this!!! – Shaheer ziya Mar 18 '22 at 17:50

How do I draw a vertical dotted line separating two columns?

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