\parbox (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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### 20.3 `\parbox`

Synopses, one of:

    \parbox{width}{contents}
    \parbox[position]{width}{contents}
    \parbox[position][height]{width}{contents}
    \parbox[position][height][inner-pos]{width}{contents}

Produce a box of text that is width wide. Use this command to make a box of small pieces of text, of a single paragraph. This command is fragile (see \protect).

    \begin{picture}(0,0)
      ...
      \put(1,2){\parbox{1.75in}{\raggedright Because the graph is a line on
                             this semilog paper, the relationship is
                             exponential.}}
    \end{picture}

The contents are processed in a text mode (see Modes) so LaTeX will break lines to make a paragraph. But it won’t make multiple paragraphs; for that, use a `minipage` environment (see minipage).

The options for `\parbox` (except for contents) are the same as those for `minipage`. For convenience a summary of the options is here but see minipage for a complete description.

There are two required arguments. The width is a rigid length (see Lengths). It sets the width of the box into which LaTeX typesets contents. The contents is the text that is placed in that box. It should not have any paragraph-making components.

There are three optional arguments, position, height, and inner-pos. The position gives the vertical alignment of the `parbox` with respect to the surrounding material. The possible values are `c` or `m` to make the vertical center of the `parbox` lines up with the center of the adjacent line (this is the default), or `t` to match the top line of the `parbox` with the baseline of the surrounding material, or `b` to match the bottom line.

The optional argument height overrides the natural height of the box.

The optional argument inner-pos controls the placement of content inside the `parbox`. Its default is the value of position. Its possible values are: `t` to put the content at the top of the box, `c` to put it in the vertical center, `b` to put it at the bottom of the box, and `s` to stretch it out vertically (for this, the text must contain vertically stretchable space).

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual