rowcolor removes the vertical lines of the table

Question

After compiling (using pdflatex) the following

\documentclass[12pt]{amsart}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm,amssymb,amsxtra,amsopn}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
\hline
\rowcolor{lime!20}Item 1 & Item 2 & Item 3 \\
\hline
text & text & text\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

some of the borders of the table is invisible. After zooming in, the borders are visible. I observe this type of strange behaviour when dealing with such tables using \rowcolor or \cellcolor command. How to fix the code so that the borders of the output table are visible without zooming.

For me, it doesn't remove anythging. Which pdfviewer do you use? — Bernard, Aug 11 '19 at 01:20
Related: Tabular and lines displaying problem with Adobe. You could either increase the width of the lines or redraw your table using a tikz matrix or alternatively the cals package. — leandriis, Aug 11 '19 at 07:58
I see also the vertical lines. The technical problem is that some pdf viewer at some scales are not able to show well that lines. The true problem is that I can see that lines, and also if that document is printed. Believe me, a table is always better only with horizontal lines. — Fran, Aug 11 '19 at 10:27

marv · Answer 1 · 2022-01-06T20:42:56.497

Another option would be the new tabularray package (CTAN). It has the command \SetRow which you can use to modify all properties of the current row, including color. Using that, vertical lines appear correct with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

\documentclass[12pt]{amsart}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm,amssymb,amsxtra,amsopn}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{tabularray}
\begin{document}
    rowcolor solution
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
    \hline
    \rowcolor{lime!20}Item 1 &amp; Item 2 &amp; Item 3 \\
    \hline
    text &amp; text &amp; text\\
    \hline
\end{tabular}
\vspace{1cm}

tabularray solution

\begin{tblr}{|c|c|c|}
    \hline
    \SetRow{lime!20} Item 1 &amp; Item 2 &amp; Item 3 \\
    \hline
    text &amp; text &amp; text\\
    \hline
\end{tblr}

\end{document}

Note: The package has different (better) default spacing, which you can modify with the rowsep and colsep keys as you like.

Edit: I don't exactly know what causes it, but the vertical and horizontal lines are the not all the same width for the colored cells with the colortbl solution. It seems as if the tabularray "encoding" is superior, since it does not cause any artifacts no matter the zoom level.

As Zarko pointed out in his comment, the tabularray package also supports a very nice key-value interface for formatting.

\begin{tblr}{
        hlines, vlines, cells = {c}, 
        row{1} = {bg=lime!20},
    }
    Item 1 & Item 2 & Item 3 \\ 
    text   & text   & text   \\     
\end{tblr}

In my test table the widths of lines are equal in all rows. BTW, coorect code for tabularray is: `\documentclass[12pt]{amsart} \usepackage{xcolor} \usepackage{tabularray}
\begin{document} \begin{tblr}{hlines, vlines, cells = {c}, row{1} = {bg=lime!20}} Item 1 & Item 2 & Item 3 \ text & text & text \ \end{tblr} \end{document}`. Anyway, +1 ;-) — Zarko, Jan 06 '22 at 19:51
@Zarko I also prefer the key-value syntax :) However, I wanted to keep the answer as close to the original code to avoid additional confusion. — marv, Jan 06 '22 at 20:31
@Zarko I have added the key-value formatting option to the answer now. — marv, Jan 06 '22 at 20:43

F. Pantigny · Answer 2 · 2022-01-07T12:46:43.677

2

You can use {NiceTabular} of nicematrix. Rules won't seem to disappear, whatever PDF viewer (and level of zoom) you use.

\documentclass[12pt]{amsart}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{nicematrix}
\begin{document}
With \verb|{tabular}| (and \verb|colortbl|).
\medskip
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
\hline
\rowcolor{lime!20}Item 1 & Item 2 & Item 3 \
\hline
text & text & text\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\vspace{1cm}
With \verb|{NiceTabular}| of \verb|nicematrix|.
\medskip
\begin{NiceTabular}{|c|c|c|}[colortbl-like]
\hline
\rowcolor{lime!20}Item 1 & Item 2 & Item 3 \
\hline
text & text & text\
\hline
\end{NiceTabular}
\end{document}

You need several compilations (because nicematrix uses PGF/Tikz nodes under the hood).

edited Jan 07 '22 at 12:46

answered Jan 06 '22 at 16:17

F. Pantigny

40,250

(+1). At coloring of tables the package nicematrix is superior to others. BTW, instead of \usepackage{xcolor}\usepackage{colortbl} I would write \usepackage[table]{xcolor} – Zarko Jan 06 '22 at 20:02
@Zarko: Good idea. I will modify. – F. Pantigny Jan 07 '22 at 12:46
@Zarko can you elaborate on this? Why is nicematrix superior to other packages such as say tabularray ? – marv Jan 07 '22 at 12:57
@marv, i mean regarding coloring cells and rows. No one of others handle this so good. In general in my list the tabularray is the first :-) – Zarko Jan 07 '22 at 13:27

rowcolor removes the vertical lines of the table

2 Answers2