Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX and pdfLaTeX - Mirror

Graphic
Graphic
Figure 6: Minipages with Tops Aligned
12 Overlaying Two Imported Graphics
This section describes how to overlay two graphics. Note that there is no guarantee
that the top graphic is transparent; it may have been created with an opaque
background that hides the bottom graphic.
For example 18 , the files left.eps and right.eps contain the graphics shown in
Figure 7, then the commands
\makebox[0pt][l]{\includegraphics{left.eps}}%
\includegraphics{right.eps}
overlay the two graphics, as shown in Figure 8. The graphics are overlaid with their
reference (lower-left) points coincident. In this particular example, the graphics had
identical natural sizes so they overlaid perfectly without any scaling. Other pairs of
graphics may require scaling (by \includegraphics, \scalebox, or \resizebox) to
achieve the desired overlaying.
This overlaying code may seem mysterious unless one understands the \makebox
command. The \makebox[0pt][l]{...} creates a zero-width box in which its argument
is placed. When a width is specified (0 pt in this case), the typesetting
algorithms allocate this much horizontal space regardless of the actual width of the
contents. Thus, a left-justified zero-width box causes the L A TEX objects following the
box to be typeset on top of the contents of the box.
Left
Right
(a) Contents of left.eps
(b) Contents of right.eps
Figure 7: Contents of Graphics Files
Left
Right
Figure 8: Two overlaid graphics
18 Although this example overlays two eps files, similar code can be used for overlaying other
graphic formats.
38