I have a simple table as follows:
\begin{table*} \centering \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|p{2in}|} ... ... \end{tabular} \caption{The factors the camera solver depends on to evaluate the rules.} \label{table:factors} \end{table*} How is it possible to vertically-center the text of the cells?
Edit: The existence of this new answer has made my answer now obsolete and embarrassing. Please proceed to the new answer and vote it up.
\documentclass{article} \usepackage[a4paper,vmargin=2cm,hmargin=1cm,showframe]{geometry} \usepackage[demo]{graphicx} \usepackage[table]{xcolor} \usepackage{array} \usepackage{longtable} \parindent=0pt \def\correction#1{% \abovedisplayshortskip=#1\baselineskip\relax\belowdisplayshortskip=#1\baselineskip\relax% \abovedisplayskip=#1\baselineskip\relax\belowdisplayskip=#1\baselineskip\relax} \arrayrulewidth=1pt\relax \tabcolsep=5pt\relax \arrayrulecolor{red} \fboxsep=\tabcolsep\relax \fboxrule=\arrayrulewidth\relax \newcolumntype{A}[2]{% >{\minipage{\dimexpr#1\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-#2\arrayrulewidth\relax}\vspace\tabcolsep}% c<{\vspace\tabcolsep\endminipage}} \newenvironment{Table}[4]{% \longtable{% |A{#1}{1.5}% for figure |>{\centering$\displaystyle}A{#2}{1}<{$}% for inline equation |>{\correction{-1}\strut\[}A{#3}{1}<{\]\strut}% for displayed equation |>{\centering}A{#4}{1.5}% for text |}\hline\ignorespaces}{% \endlongtable\ignorespacesafterend} \newcommand{\dummy}{% It is practically a big lie that \LaTeX\ makes you focus on the content without bothering about the layout.} \newcommand{\Row}{% \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{newton}& \frac{a+b}{a-b}=0& \int_a^b f(x)\, \textrm{d}x=\frac{b-a}{b+a}& \fcolorbox{cyan}{yellow}{\parbox{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}{\dummy}} \tabularnewline\hline} \begin{document} \begin{Table}{0.25}{0.25}{0.25}{0.25} \Row \Row \end{Table} \def\x{\centering$\displaystyle\int_a^bf(x)\,\textrm{d}x=\frac{a-b}{a+b}$} \longtable{|A{0.2}{1.5}*2{|A{0.25}{1}}|A{0.3}{1.5}|}\hline \x & \x & \multicolumn{2}{A{0.55}{1.5}|}{\x} \tabularnewline\hline \multicolumn{2}{|A{0.45}{1.5}|}{\x} & \x & \x\tabularnewline\hline \x & \multicolumn{2}{A{0.5}{1}|}{\x} & \x\tabularnewline\hline \multicolumn{4}{|A{1}{2}|}{\x}\tabularnewline\hline \endlongtable \end{document} \vcenter to the cell of choice. This is intended as a critique on LaTeX, not the answer in itself (for which I thank you). One easy way to this would be to use the array package, specifying your column width with m{...}. For example:
\begin{tabular}{ m{4cm} m{1cm} } ... & ... \\end{tabular} will give you a four centimeter-long column and a one centimeter-long column. In each cell, the contents will be vertically aligned to the center. Note, however, that the cell contents will be horizontally aligned left. If you also want to align all the cell contents toward the center in a horizontal sense, then you could do something like this:
\begin{tabular}{ >{\centering\arraybackslash} m{4cm} >{\centering\arraybackslash} m{4cm} } ... & ... \\end{tabular} The point of \arraybackslash is to return \\ to its original meaning because the \centering command alters this and could possibly give you a noalign error during compilation.
If you have several columns and do not want your source to look cluttered, you could define new columns before your tabular environment, for example:
\newcolumntype{C}{ >{\centering\arraybackslash} m{4cm} } \newcolumntype{D}{ >{\centering\arraybackslash} m{1cm} } \begin{tabular}{ C D } ... & ... \\end{tabular} There is a lot of useful information on tables in the wiki LaTeX guide, if you want to explore this further.
p. The height of a row AND vertical-alignment follows that of the cell with the maximum height in that row. It is fine if an m column cell has the maximum height, but otherwise the vertical-align would not work. m{} I will replicate @xport's answer with my new LaTeX3 package tabularray. It is much easier while the images are still exactly vertically centered using this method.
Specifically, the values m or h are passed to the valign= key which centers the content, which can be found in section 2.5 Rows and Columns in the documentation.
\documentclass{article} \usepackage[a4paper,vmargin=2cm,hmargin=1cm]{geometry} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{xcolor} \usepackage{tabularray} \setlength{\parindent}{0pt} \newcommand{\dummy}{% It is practically a big lie that \LaTeX\ makes you focus on the content without bothering about the layout.% } \newcommand\xx{$\displaystyle\frac{a+b}{a-b}=0$} \newcommand\yy{$\displaystyle\int_a^bf(x)\,\textrm{d}x=\frac{a-b}{a+b}$} \newcommand\zz{\fcolorbox{cyan3}{yellow9}{\parbox{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep-2\fboxrule\relax}{\dummy}}} \begin{document} \noindent \begin{tblr}{ colspec = {X[c,h]X[c]X[c]X[c]}, stretch = 0, rowsep = 6pt, hlines = {red5, 1pt}, vlines = {red5, 1pt}, } \includegraphics[width=0.22\textwidth]{example-image-a} & \xx & \yy & \zz \\ \includegraphics[width=0.22\textwidth]{example-image-b} & \xx & \yy & \zz \\ \end{tblr} \bigskip \begin{tblr}{ colspec = {X[c,m]X[c,m]X[c,m]X[c,m]}, cell{1}{3} = {c=2}{c}, % multicolumn cell{2}{1} = {c=2}{c}, % multicolumn cell{3}{2} = {c=2}{c}, % multicolumn cell{4}{1} = {c=4}{c}, % multicolumn rowsep = 6pt, hlines = {red5, 1pt}, vlines = {red5, 1pt}, % vlines can not pass through multicolumn cells } \yy & \yy & \yy & \\ \yy & & \yy & \yy \\ \yy & \yy & & \yy \\ \yy & & & \\ \end{tblr} \end{document} 
t and b vertical alignment are counterintuitive, it would makes more sense to default to h type instead. (may break some backwards compatibility however.) h instead of the usual m has something to do with baseline, and is explained in Vertical alignment broken with graphics in tabularray - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange. Putting a tabular in the cell of a tabular centers the content of the cell horizontally and vertically.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|} \hline \begin{tabular}{l} text in cell 1 \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{l} first line of text in cell 2 \\ second line of text in cell 2 \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{l} first line of text in cell 3 \\ second line of text in cell 3 \\ third line of text in cell 3 \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline \begin{tabular}{l} first line of text in cell 4 \\ second line of text in cell 4 \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{l} first line of text in cell 5 \\ second line of text in cell 5 \\ third line of text in cell 5 \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{l} first line of text in cell 6 \\ second line of text in cell 6 \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline \end{tabular} gives:
so you can define a macro centered
\newcommand{\centered}[1]{\begin{tabular}{l} #1 \end{tabular}} and use it like this:
%\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|} <- Old version of this answer \begin{tabular}{|@{}l@{}|@{}c@{}|@{}c@{}|} % This update now avoids double indentations and allows hlines \hline \centered{ text in cell 1 } & \centered{ first line of text in cell 2 \\ second line of text in cell 2} & \centered{ first line of text in cell 3 \\ second line of text in cell 3 \\ third line of text in cell 3 \\ } \\ \hline \centered{ first line of text in cell 4 \\ second line of text in cell 4 } & \centered{ first line of text in cell 5 \\ second line of text in cell 5 \\ third line of text in cell 5 \\ } & \centered{ first line of text in cell 6 \\ second line of text in cell 6 \\ } \\ \hline \end{tabular} 
tabularx env. \newcommand{\centered}[1]{\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}} #1 \end{tabular}} \begin{tabular}{|@{}l@{}|@{}c@{}|@{}c@{}|} instead of \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}. I edited the answer accordingly. @{}s in the definition of the inner tables. I just found this solution for a spacing Problem. When the spaceing is set at a big enough distance, the text is centered, or at least seems like.
\Huge Text in Tabular touches table border
Here is my example:
\usepackage{makecell}%To keep spacing of text in tables \setcellgapes{4pt}%parameter for the spacing \begin{table}[h] \makegapedcells \centering \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{%resizing the whole table \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline \multicolumn{9}{|c|}{\Huge Relaisplatine} \\ \hline Relay Nr. & Part & Test-Id & \specialcell[c]{Signal-Name \\for Testcases} & Conn. & Pin & \specialcell[c]{Pin-\\Func.} & R Value & \specialcell[c]{Influenced \\ Signal/Voltage } \\ \hline & & & & & 1 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} %\hline 0 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_GPP\_VCORE & P2 & 3 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & SIGN08116 \\ \cline{6-9} %\hline & & & & & 5 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & GND \\ %\cline{6-9} \hline & & & & & 7 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 1 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_ETH\_+1V2 & P2 & 9 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & SIGN0818 \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & 11 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & GND \\ \hline & & & & & 13 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 2 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_CLOCK\_+3V3 & P2 & 15 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & SIGN0817 \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & 17 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & GND \\ \hline & & & & & & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 3 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_HICURR1 & P3 & PCB-Cable & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & RIO\_+3V3 \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & PCB-Cable & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & GND \\ \hline & & & & & & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 4 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_HICURR2 & P3 & PCB-Cable & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & RIO\_+3V3 \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & PCB-Cable & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & GND \\ \hline & & & & & 14 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 5 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & BAT\_LOW TBD & P2 & 16 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & TBD \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & 18 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & \\ \hline & & & & & 8 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 6 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & BAT\_EMPTY TBD & P2 & 10 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & TBD \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & 12 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & \\ \hline & & & & & 2 & N.C. & Open & Open \\ \cline{6-9} 7 & RIO & RIO\_VOLT\_SDAR & RIO\_DSP\_+3V3 & P2 & 4 & COM & 0 $\Omega$ & SIGN08150 \\ \cline{6-9} & & & & & 6 & N.O. & 0 $\Omega$ & Open \\ \hline \end{tabular} } \caption{Verkabelung der ersten Relaisplatine an X400/PortA} \end{table} Gives me: 
There is a command \vcenter which vertically centers its content in horizontal mode. It can only be used in mathmode.
Here is an example with Plain XeTeX (compile with xetex yourfilename.tex)
{ \offinterlineskip \def\trule{\noalign{\hrule}} \def\hcenter#1{\hfil#1\hfil} \halign{\vrule#&&\hcenter{$\vcenter{\hbox{#}}$}\vrule\cr\trule &Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet&\XeTeXpicfile "example-image.jpg" width 3cm & \TeX&$E=mc^2$&$\displaystyle{a^2-b^2\over c^2}$\cr\trule &Etiam quam lacus&\vrule width 4em height 5ex depth 2ex&\eTeX & $E\ne mc^2$&{\it \&} cetera\cr\trule} } \bye 
If you just want to center the text because you are not happy with the default row height, you can put the following command before each tabular environment:
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{number} where number is the factor to multiply the default row height.
I found out a different approach that doesn't require extra packages or redefining stuff (I guess it only works properly with one line of text in each cell).
For padding at the top you can use this solution (I found it here):
\rule{0pt}{4ex} ...which creates vertical space to by adding an invisible (0 width) horizontal bar of the height you need (in this case, 4 times the lowercase x, counting from the text baseline). This one goes before the first cell content.
For padding at the bottom, you just add the needed space after the line ends:
cell & cell & cell \\[4ex] Note: For a nice balance I found that the top padding needs to be 2.2ex more than the bottom one (to compensate for the height of the text itself).
\rule{0pt}{4.2ex} cell & cell & cell \\[3ex] For hopeless people who couldn't make any of the above solutions work:
Define a parbox and manually offset your text. The following macro should do it.
\newcommand{\centeredtxt}[1]{ \begin{tabular}{l} \parbox{2cm}{\vspace{-50pt} \centering #1} \end{tabular} } 
p{...}aligns the content toward the top,m{...}aligns the content toward the center, whileb{...}aligns it toward the bottom.pspecifier is standard.