LaTeX nodes with text do not align vertically

Question

I would like to align the text in two nodes vertically. My current implementation is as follows:

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \node[anchor=west] at (0,0) {depot};
        \node[anchor=west] at (2,0) {satellite};        
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}

This returns the following figure

As you can see, the words are not well aligned in the vertical direction. This is caused by the "p" in depot. What argument should I add to \node to have them vertically aligned?

Answer 1

With \strut you can "fake" a letter of maximal height and depth:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \node[anchor=west] at (0,0) {depot\strut};
        \node[anchor=west] at (2,0) {satellite\strut};        
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}


\end{document}

... or you anchor on base west:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \node[anchor=base west] at (0,0) {depot};
        \node[anchor=base west] at (2,0) {satellite};        
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}


\end{document}