Making a fake figure that holds a text box of specified dimensions

Question

I think I have seen this done before, but I am not sure. Is there a way to build a fake figure in LaTeX? I would like to do this while the other figures in the document render correctly.

Ideally, I would like to have a white box with large text in it, and with a black frame around it. It would be great to be able to control the height and width of this box.

E.g.

\begin{figure}[!t]
\centering
%% Code to make a fake text box
\caption{}
\label{}
\end{figure}

I am loading TikZ in the document, so I can use solutions that may require it.

Martin Scharrer · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-29T18:08:03.010

8

A simple way to do this is to use \fbox{Dummy} with a \resizebox{<width>}{<height>}{<content>}. Maybe playcing the \fbox on the outside.

It is even easier and more flexible with my adjustbox package, e.g.:

\adjustbox{margin=1em,width=.9\textwidth,set height=10cm,frame,center}{Dummy}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{figure}[!t]
    \centering
    \adjustbox{margin=1em,width=\textwidth,set height=4cm,set depth=4cm,frame,center}{Dummy}
    \caption{Dummy}
    \label{fig:dummy}
\end{figure}


\lipsum[2-3]

\end{document}

Result

edited Mar 29 '12 at 18:08

answered Mar 29 '12 at 18:01

Martin Scharrer

262,582

2

If multi-line text is required add e.g. a minipage=<width> or similar key at the very beginning. – Martin Scharrer Mar 29 '12 at 18:28
@AndrewSwann: Yes, thanks. My mistake. Fixed now. – Martin Scharrer Oct 08 '18 at 08:48

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 29 '12 at 18:09

Another way could be using a \fbox to frame a \parbox (using the second optional argument you can control the height):

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand\FramedBox[3]{%
  \setlength\fboxsep{0pt}
  \fbox{\parbox[t][#1][c]{#2}{\centering\huge #3}}}

\begin{document}

\FramedBox{4cm}{4cm}{Some text}

\FramedBox{2cm}{8cm}{Some text}

\end{document}

enter image description here

egreg · Answer 3 · 2012-03-29T18:12:41.683

4

Here's a way: an \fbox containing invisible rules as high and wide as specified

\newcommand{\fakebox}[2]{% #1 = width, #2 = height
  {\fboxsep=-\fboxrule\fbox{\rule{0pt}{#2}\rule{#1}{0pt}}}}

\fakebox{3cm}{2cm}

The initial setting will add no additional width or height due to the borders.

Adding a word is not difficult: I would never use a large word, just a small one in a corner to make clear that this is only a placeholder

\newcommand{\fakebox}[2]{% #1 = width, #2 = height
  {\fboxsep=-\fboxrule\fbox{\makebox[0pt][r]{\kern2\fboxrule\tiny dummy}%
     \rule{0pt}{#2}\rule{#1}{0pt}}}}

edited Mar 29 '12 at 18:12

answered Mar 29 '12 at 18:01

egreg

1,121,712

There is a \phantombox{<width>}{<height>}{<depth} macro provided by adjustbox, which could be placed in a \frame or \fbox. You can also reduce the dimensions to compensate for the frame rule width and separation. – Martin Scharrer Mar 29 '12 at 18:03

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

1

My approach is very similar to my solution for this https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/44199/10570 . It uses the picins package.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{picins}

\def\pictureBox#1#2#3{%
    \parpic(#1,#2)[d]{#3}\picskip{0}%
}%


\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
    \pictureBox{8cm}{5cm}{Here is the text.}
    \caption{My placholder}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community

1

answered Mar 29 '12 at 18:18

Holle

5,344

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 08 '18 at 08:06

An other very simple solution may be to use the \missingfigure command of the todonotes package. You can adjust the width and height of the figure with the figwidthand figheight parameters : \missingfigure[figwidth=6cm]{Testing a long text string} You can also change the color of the background with the figheightparameter.

Making a fake figure that holds a text box of specified dimensions

5 Answers5