Environments for visually setting text apart

Question

I have a document consisting of alternating paragraphs from different voices. Because the paragraph blocks look too much alike, I need some way to give the different parts a different look.

I have already tried options such as changing to italics or bold face, but I do not want to hinder readability. I wonder if there other environments in which I can place the around some paragraphs or other visual elements which I can use to let readers easily know which part is which?

Related Question: To clearly separate block inside a chapter. — Peter Grill, Feb 20 '14 at 18:47

score 42 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

There are numerous ways to do this:

You could simply use different colored text, or perhaps a combination of the following will yield the desired something to your liking.
Here is an example of using the mdframed package to highlight the different sections:
You could use adjustwidth environment from the changepage package to visually separate the two paragraphs:
You could use the changebar package:
If your paragraphs are not too large you could use the solution from Mark portions of text without affecting spacing to make the begin and end of the paragraphs:
In case you want to have solutions which do not require using separate paragraphs, here is a version comparable to the mdframed, which uses the solution from Cool Text Highlighting in LaTeX to provide highlighting which appears manually generated:

Code: `mdframed`:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{mdframed}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newmdenv[
    backgroundcolor=yellow!10,
    rightline=false,
    leftline=false,
    topline=false,
    bottomline=false,
    innertopmargin=1pt,
    innerbottommargin=1pt,
    innerleftmargin=0,
    innerrightmargin=0,
]{VoiceA}
\newmdenv[
    backgroundcolor=gray!10,
    rightline=false,
    leftline=false,
    topline=false,
    bottomline=false,
    innertopmargin=1pt,
    innerbottommargin=1pt,
    innerleftmargin=0,
    innerrightmargin=0,
]{VoiceB}
\begin{document}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
    Phasellus ut elit ipsum. 
    In massa metus, suscipit vel semper in, sodales sed risus. 
    Aliquam gravida ultricies sollicitudin. 
\end{VoiceA}
\begin{VoiceB}
    Vivamus et sem velit. 
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. 
    Sed rhoncus neque a orci vulputate ut elementum dui ornare.

\end{VoiceB}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Nulla id magna metus. Integer lacus dolor, tempus ac sodales 
    eu, blandit nec ligula. 
    Etiam quis arcu ac nisi lobortis ultricies quis in dolor. 
    Quisque lobortis magna arcu.
\end{VoiceA}
\end{document}

Code: `adjustwidth`:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{changepage}
\newenvironment{VoiceA}{%
    \begin{adjustwidth}{0pt}{1.0cm}%
}{%
    \end{adjustwidth}%
}
\newenvironment{VoiceB}{%
    \begin{adjustwidth}{1.0cm}{0pt}%
}{%
    \end{adjustwidth}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
    Phasellus ut elit ipsum. 
    In massa metus, suscipit vel semper in, sodales sed risus. 
    Aliquam gravida ultricies sollicitudin. 
\end{VoiceA}
\begin{VoiceB}
    Vivamus et sem velit. 
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. 
    Sed rhoncus neque a orci vulputate ut elementum dui ornare.

\end{VoiceB}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Nulla id magna metus. Integer lacus dolor, tempus ac sodales 
    eu, blandit nec ligula. 
    Etiam quis arcu ac nisi lobortis ultricies quis in dolor. 
    Quisque lobortis magna arcu.
\end{VoiceA}
\end{document}

Code: `changebar`:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[xcolor,outerbars]{changebar}
\setlength\changebarsep{5pt}
\newenvironment{VoiceA}{%
    \cbcolor{red}%
    \par%
    \cbstart%
}{%
%
    \cbend%
}
\newenvironment{VoiceB}{%
    \cbcolor{white}% gets cluttered if both have changebars
    \par%
    \cbstart%
}{%
    \cbend%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
    Phasellus ut elit ipsum. 
    In massa metus, suscipit vel semper in, sodales sed risus. 
    Aliquam gravida ultricies sollicitudin. 
\end{VoiceA}
\begin{VoiceB}
    Vivamus et sem velit. 
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. 
    Sed rhoncus neque a orci vulputate ut elementum dui ornare.

\end{VoiceB}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Nulla id magna metus. Integer lacus dolor, tempus ac sodales 
    eu, blandit nec ligula. 
    Etiam quis arcu ac nisi lobortis ultricies quis in dolor. 
    Quisque lobortis magna arcu.
\end{VoiceA}
\end{document}

Code: Paragraph Markers:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{environ}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{mathabx}
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/24174/mark-portions-of-text-without-affecting-spacing
\DeclareRobustCommand{\MarkStart}[1]{{%
  \setbox0=\llap{\raisebox{5pt}{\color{#1}$\Rsh$\kern-6pt}}%
  \ht0=0pt \dp0=0pt \leavevmode\box0
}}
\DeclareRobustCommand{\MarkEnd}[1]{{%
  \setbox0=\rlap{\raisebox{5pt}{\color{#1}\kern-6pt$\Lsh$}}%
  \ht0=0pt \dp0=0pt \leavevmode\box0
}}
\newcommand*{\Mark}[1]{\MarkStart#1\MarkEnd}
\NewEnviron{VoiceA}{\par\MarkStart{red}\BODY\MarkEnd{red}}
\NewEnviron{VoiceB}{\par\MarkStart{blue}\BODY\MarkEnd{blue}}
\begin{document}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
    Phasellus ut elit ipsum. 
    In massa metus, suscipit vel semper in, sodales sed risus. 
    Aliquam gravida ultricies sollicitudin. 
\end{VoiceA}
\begin{VoiceB}
    Vivamus et sem velit. 
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. 
    Sed rhoncus neque a orci vulputate ut elementum dui ornare.

\end{VoiceB}
\begin{VoiceA}
    Nulla id magna metus. Integer lacus dolor, tempus ac sodales 
    eu, blandit nec ligula. 
    Etiam quis arcu ac nisi lobortis ultricies quis in dolor. 
    Quisque lobortis magna arcu.
\end{VoiceA}
\end{document}

Code: Cool Highlighting:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{soul}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing}
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/5959/cool-text-highlighting-in-latex
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\defhighlighter}[3][]{%
  \tikzset{every highlighter/.style={color=#2, fill opacity=#3, #1}}%
}
\defhighlighter{yellow}{.3}
\newcommand{\highlight@DoHighlight}{
  \fill [ decoration = {random steps, amplitude=1pt, segment length=55pt}
        , outer sep = -15pt, inner sep = 0pt, decorate
        , every highlighter, this highlighter ]
        ($(begin highlight)+(0,8pt)$) rectangle ($(end highlight)+(0,-3pt)$) ;
}
\newcommand{\highlight@BeginHighlight}{
  \coordinate (begin highlight) at (0,0) ;
}
\newcommand{\highlight@EndHighlight}{
  \coordinate (end highlight) at (0,0) ;
}
\newdimen\highlight@previous
\newdimen\highlight@current
\DeclareRobustCommand*\highlight[1][]{%
  \tikzset{this highlighter/.style={#1}}%
  \SOUL@setup
  %
  \def\SOUL@preamble{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
      \highlight@BeginHighlight
      \highlight@EndHighlight
    \end{tikzpicture}%
  }%
  %
  \def\SOUL@postamble{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
      \highlight@EndHighlight
      \highlight@DoHighlight
    \end{tikzpicture}%
  }%
  %
  \def\SOUL@everyhyphen{%
    \discretionary{%
      \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@hyphkern
      \SOUL@sethyphenchar
      \tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
    }{%
    }{%
      \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
    }%
  }%
  %
  \def\SOUL@everyexhyphen##1{%
    \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@hyphkern
    \hbox{##1}%
    \discretionary{%
      \tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
    }{%
    }{%
      \SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
    }%
  }%
  %
  \def\SOUL@everysyllable{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
      \path let \p0 = (begin highlight), \p1 = (0,0) in \pgfextra
        \global\highlight@previous=\y0
        \global\highlight@current =\y1
      \endpgfextra (0,0) ;
      \ifdim\highlight@current < \highlight@previous
        \highlight@DoHighlight
        \highlight@BeginHighlight
      \fi
    \end{tikzpicture}%
    \the\SOUL@syllable
    \tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
  }%
  \SOUL@
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\highlight[yellow]{
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
    Phasellus ut elit ipsum. 
    In massa metus, suscipit vel semper in, sodales sed risus. 
    Aliquam gravida ultricies sollicitudin. 
}
\highlight[gray]{
    Vivamus et sem velit. 
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. 
    Sed rhoncus neque a orci vulputate ut elementum dui ornare.

}
\highlight[yellow]{
    Nulla id magna metus. Integer lacus dolor, tempus ac sodales 
    eu, blandit nec ligula. 
    Etiam quis arcu ac nisi lobortis ultricies quis in dolor. 
    Quisque lobortis magna arcu.
}
\end{document}

Environments for visually setting text apart

1 Answers1

Code: `mdframed`:

Code: `adjustwidth`:

Code: `changebar`:

Code: Paragraph Markers:

Code: Cool Highlighting:

Linked

Environments for visually setting text apart

1 Answers1

Code: mdframed:

Code: adjustwidth:

Code: changebar:

Code: Paragraph Markers:

Code: Cool Highlighting:

Linked

Code: `mdframed`:

Code: `adjustwidth`:

Code: `changebar`: