diff --git a/assets/tex/pg.sty b/assets/tex/pg.sty
index 8fcdf988df..80ae201058 100644
--- a/assets/tex/pg.sty
+++ b/assets/tex/pg.sty
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 % packages that are needed for some PG macro to function for tex output or that
 % support math mode tex macros that could reasonably appear in a PG problem
 \usepackage{amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb}                                           % math macros
-\usepackage{booktabs, tabularx, colortbl, caption, xcolor}                        % niceTables.pl
+\usepackage{booktabs, tabularx, colortbl, caption}                                % niceTables.pl
+\usepackage[table]{xcolor}                                                        % niceTables.pl
 \usepackage{multicol}                                                             % DragNDrop.pm
 \usepackage[version=4]{mhchem}                                                    % chemistry macros
 
diff --git a/macros/ui/niceTables.pl b/macros/ui/niceTables.pl
index 23bbcb570d..163b52b7ba 100644
--- a/macros/ui/niceTables.pl
+++ b/macros/ui/niceTables.pl
@@ -758,6 +758,10 @@ sub Rows {
 					if $x->{bottom};
 			}
 
+			# if this row had a row color, disable that now or else with nested tables
+			# the row color will extend into subsequent rows (this seems like a colortbl bug)
+			$row = suffix($row, '\hiderowcolors', ' ') if $rowcolor;
+
 			push(@rows, $row);
 		} elsif ($main::displayMode eq 'PTX') {
 			my $ptxbottom = '';
@@ -942,6 +946,7 @@ sub Row {
 				$columntype =~ s/^p/b/ if ($valign eq 'bottom');
 				$columntype =~ s/^p/m/ if ($tableOpts->{valign} eq 'middle');
 				$columntype =~ s/^p/b/ if ($tableOpts->{valign} eq 'bottom');
+				$columntype = ">{$cellAlign->{tex}}" . $columntype if $cellAlign->{tex};
 				$columntype = getLaTeXcolumnWidth($alignment->[0]{left}) . $columntype
 					if ($i == 0 && $alignment->[0]{left} && !$cellOpts->{halign});
 
@@ -1492,7 +1497,7 @@ sub getLaTeXthickness {
 	my $input  = shift;
 	my $output = '';
 	if ($input =~ /^\s*(\.\d+|\d+\.?\d*)\s*$/) {
-		$output = "$1px" if $1;
+		$output = $1 * 0.75 . 'pt' if $1;
 	} elsif ($input) {
 		$output = "$input";
 	}