Infering the size of a minipage from the containing tikz node for rmarkdown

Question

This is a follow-up question to Using bullets list in tikz's node label in rmarkdown. I had some TikZ code that works fine in pure LaTex but NOT when I transport it to rmarkdown where the error ! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item. is raised. This was solved in the answer to Using bullets list in tikz's node label in rmarkdown but another issue arises applying the solution I got in there.

You can refer to the original question (Using bullets list in tikz's node label in rmarkdown) but basically I have some TikZ code for pictures to be used as part of a larger rmarkdown file. It works in LaTex as I tested in on https://www.overleaf.com/ but once in rmarkdown, it raises the missing item error. The proposed solution in Using bullets list in tikz's node label in rmarkdown was to add a \minipage environment in rmarkdown (see the code below).

My problem with the use of the \minipage environment is that I will have to manually set its width (or at least I don't know how to automate this) before creating the node which is supposed to be part of a large TikZ picture. In other words, I need to know the allocated space for each node to reproduce the picture in rmarkdown. I was wondering whether there is a way to infer the size of the node in advance, so that I can create a minipage matching the size of the node it will contain.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}
\definecolor{BulletsColor}{rgb}{0, 0, 0.9}
\newlist{myBullets}{itemize}{1}

\setlist[myBullets]{
  label=\textcolor{BulletsColor}{\textbullet},
  leftmargin=*,
  topsep=0ex,
  partopsep=0ex,
  parsep=0ex,
  itemsep=0ex,
  before={\color{BulletsColor}\itshape}
}


\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[draw, rounded corners] (a)  {
    \begin{minipage}{2.5cm}
      p
      \begin{myBullets}
      \item first item
      \item second item
      \end{myBullets}
    \end{minipage}
  }
  ;
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I am also open to other solutions as long as I will NOT have to specify the size of my nodes manually. For example doing (note the commented lines)

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[draw, rounded corners] (a)  {
    % \begin{minipage}{2.5cm}
      p
      \begin{myBullets}
      \item first item
      \item second item
      \end{myBullets}
    % \end{minipage}
  }
  ;
  \end{tikzpicture}

in TikZ will infer the size of the node from its text size and I am looking for something that allows me to use the same code in rmarkdown without having to manually specify the size of each minipage across my nodes.

Probably unrelated to the problem, but the use of a minipage in the tikz node seems overkill. I suggest to simply specify the text width, e.g. `\node[draw, rounded corners,text width = 3cm] (a){ p \begin{myBullets} \item first item \item second item \end{myBullets} };` — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 17 '19 at 15:08
"Infering the size of a minipage from the containing tikz node for rmarkdown" You can't, if you are in paragraph mode. A paragraph takes as much space as it can before line breaking. So a paragraph, without any mean to compute its size is a TeX error. — Alain Merigot, Jun 17 '19 at 15:10
If you dont want the minipage, you can use `\node[draw,text width=3cm](a){P, etc}` If you dont want the fixed width, replace it by `1.2\widthof{my item width}` that will scale with your fonts (with the calc package). But you need to introduce some width. And a last word. Your documents will probably look nicer if all nodes have the same size (or you have a limited set of differents sizes). So even if it was possible, I do not think it woud be a good idea to have node width completely adapt to the actual text. — Alain Merigot, Jun 17 '19 at 15:10
@samcarter, this works fine in rmarkdown but I also need my style (set up as stile namely) — Liman, Jun 17 '19 at 17:44
@Alain Merigot, I will give a try to the same size node idea. I haven't even thought about having the same node size may give a better look to the whole picture. — Liman, Jun 17 '19 at 17:51
@samcarter Thank you for answer and comments. I have been trying to test it and make sure it solves my problem before accepting it. I just added my style and it works though with some warnings. Basically, instead of `\node[draw, rounded corners, font=\itshape, text=BulletsColor] (a) {...}`, I just used `\node[stile] (a) {...}`. — Liman, Jun 17 '19 at 22:17
@samcarter I am not aware of `namely` as node option. Can you elaborate? — Liman, Jun 17 '19 at 22:21
@Liman I understood your comment as if your style was called `namely`, but apparently it is called something else. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 17 '19 at 22:23

samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-17T15:19:55.577

You could replace minipage with the varwidth environment from the package of the same name:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\usepackage{varwidth}


\begin{document}
\definecolor{BulletsColor}{rgb}{0, 0, 0.9}
\newlist{myBullets}{itemize}{1}

\setlist[myBullets]{
  label=\textcolor{BulletsColor}{\textbullet},
  leftmargin=*,
  topsep=0ex,
  partopsep=0ex,
  parsep=0ex,
  itemsep=0ex,
%  before={\color{BulletsColor}\itshape}
}


\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[draw, rounded corners, font=\itshape, text=BulletsColor] (a)  {
    \begin{varwidth}{\textwidth}
      p
      \begin{myBullets}
      \item \textcolor{BulletsColor}{first item}
      \item \textcolor{BulletsColor}{second item}
      \end{myBullets}
    \end{varwidth}
  }
  ;
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Infering the size of a minipage from the containing tikz node for rmarkdown

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