2 minipages side by side don't respect the width of an article

Question

In one of my .tex file, I have the following code which puts 2 minipages side by side, the whole width cover two minipages:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-.5in}
\setlength{\textheight}{9in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{.125in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{6.25in}

% \documentclass[runningheads,orivec]{llncs}

\input{fonts.tex}
\input{macros.tex}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{bbm}
\usepackage{bm}
\usepackage{empheq}
\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{mathbbol}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{caption,subcaption}%
\usepackage{calc}% http://ctan.org/pkg/calc
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{algpseudocode}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{listings,xcolor,lipsum}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,shapes,shadows,arrows}

\begin{document}
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla\\
\noindent\begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
  \centering
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}%
      \hspace*{0em}{\begin{tikzpicture}[thick, scale=0.6]
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (2,0) rectangle (10,2);
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (2,5) rectangle (6,12);
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (6,5) rectangle (10,12);
        \end{tikzpicture}}
    \end{minipage}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
  \centering
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}%
      \raisebox{0em}{\begin{tikzpicture}[thick, scale=0.6]
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (2,0) rectangle (6,7);
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (8,0) rectangle (12,7);
          \filldraw[fill=white!20] (2,-5) rectangle (12,-3);
        \end{tikzpicture}}
    \end{minipage}
\end{minipage}\\
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
\end{document}

In a new .tex file, I need to use \documentclass[runningheads,orivec]{llncs}, so I remove all the \setlength, with the same code, the minipages are a little bit too large, and do not respect the border on the right...

Does anyone know which parameter I need to change so that the 2 minipages respect the width of the article?

Edit1: Sorry guys, you could finally try the code above and switch between article and llncs. You will see that for llncs, the minipages exceed a little bit the border on the right... Could we amend that?

Answer 1

The problem is that your tikzpicture is too big for the minipage. I added \usepackage{showframe} so that we can see where the margins are.

As you can see from the two minipages of text, things fit fine. Only with the tikzpicture do you have the overflow. Hence you need to reduce the size of your picture by adjusting the scale.

Notes:

• Using \showthe\linewidth, we see that the \linewidth=451.6875pt for the article class, and \linewidth=347.12354pt with the llncs class. This reduction in the width is what is causing the pictures to no longer fit within the minipage and flow into the margin.
• The geometry package changes the \linewidth and hence the problem does not show up if you use \usepackage[showframe]{geometry}.

Code:

%\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
%\setlength{\topmargin}{-.5in}
%\setlength{\textheight}{9in}
%\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{.125in}
%\setlength{\textwidth}{6.25in}
\documentclass[runningheads,orivec]{llncs}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newcommand{\Text}{%
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla}
\begin{document}
%\showthe\linewidth
\noindent\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}
    \Text
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\noindent\begin{minipage}{0.48\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}
    \Text
\end{minipage}
\bigskip\noindent
\Text
\noindent\begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
  \centering
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}%
      \hspace*{0em}{\begin{tikzpicture}[thick, scale=0.6]
          \filldraw[fill=red!20] (2,0) rectangle (10,2);
          \filldraw[fill=blue!20] (2,5) rectangle (6,12);
          \filldraw[fill=green!20] (6,5) rectangle (10,12);
        \end{tikzpicture}}
    \end{minipage}%
\end{minipage}\hfill%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.48\linewidth}%
  \centering
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule}%
      \raisebox{0em}{\begin{tikzpicture}[thick, scale=0.6]
          \filldraw[fill=brown!20] (2,0) rectangle (6,7);
          \filldraw[fill=orange!20] (8,0) rectangle (12,7);
          \filldraw[fill=violet!20] (2,-5) rectangle (12,-3);
        \end{tikzpicture}}
    \end{minipage}
\end{minipage}%
\noindent\Text
\end{document}