Minipage layered over a TikZ image

Question

I have a minipage of some text, and an image created in TikZ. The image has a bunch of white space in it, and I'd like to overlay part of the text on top of the image's white space. This is similar to what one can do with layers in Powerpoint.

With some creative use of hspace, here's a simple solution that produces exactly what I want:

\hspace{4.3in}\parbox{2.5cm}{%
\tikz blah blah blah
}
\hspace{-5.3in}\begin{minipage}[t]{0.8\textwidth}
text text text text
\end{minipage}

This feels very hacky—it works but is inelegant. I was wondering if there was an easier way to do this, or if this was the "easier way"?

Answer 1

An alternative approach that requires a small change in your code (if I understood your setup correctly). In the macro containing the TikZ code, don't include \begin{tikzpicture} and \end{tikzpicture}.

Whenever you need just the image, write \tikz {\imagecode}. When you need something additional in the diagram, use something like

\begin{tikzpicture}
\imagecode
\node at (x,y) {...};
\end{tikzpicture}

A simple example and output below:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz,lipsum}
\newcommand\imagecode{
\fill [blue!10] (0,0) -- (1,0.5) -| (3,0) -- cycle;
\fill [red!10] (0,0) -- (1,0.5) |- (0,4) -- cycle;
\draw [very thick] (0,0) |- (1,4) |- (3,0.5) |- cycle;
}
\begin{document}
Some text here, then one instance of the diagram.
\begin{center}
\tikz{\imagecode}
\end{center}
Then some more text, and another instance of the diagram, with some additional text.
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\imagecode
\node [below left,xshift=3cm,text width=4.5cm,font=\tiny] at (current bounding box.north east) {\lipsum[2]};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}

\end{document}

Answer 2

From the comments it is seen that the tikz image itself is in a macro, and therefore it is not possible to add the text directly. But tikzpictures can be nested, so one way is to make a new picture where the macro picture is positioned.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{lipsum}
%%%
\newcommand\tikzfigmacro{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[fill=blue,opacity=0.7] (4,0) circle (1cm);
  \end{tikzpicture}
}
%%%
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \path (0,0) node[anchor=south west]{%
    \begin{minipage}{0.5\linewidth}
      \lipsum[1]
    \end{minipage}
  };
  \path (2,3) node[anchor=south west]{\tikzfigmacro};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}