Making text narrow

Question

I'm using \textlsfrom the microtype package to increase space between letters, but I can't find a command that will make a text look narrow (or maybe a very narrow serif font?).

What is the best way of giving a "compact" effect to a text?

Answer 1

if the text that you want to be "narrow" is just short phrases, and they don't need to be broken into lines, you can cheat, and use \scalebox from the graphicx package. for example:

the narrowed portion was produced with

\scalebox{.7}[1.0]{This text is narrowed.}

you do need the optional [1.0] height, since you want to change the aspect ratio.

it's not wonderful, and the limitations are, well, limiting, but it doesn't require anything you haven't already got.

Answer 2

\textls accepts an optional argument to specify the amount of letterspacing; the default value is 100 (i.e., each character is spaced out by 0.1em). It is possible to specify a negative value.

(I should point out that choosing a "narrow" font design is far better than this brute-force solution. Also, the value of -35 in my example was chosen for demonstration purposes and borders the intolerable.)

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

\textls[100]{\blindtext}%  or just \textls{\blindtext}

\textls[45]{\blindtext} 

\blindtext

\textls[-35]{\blindtext} 

\end{document}

Answer 3

You can also search for a font with a condensed set of characters

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage[shrink=40,letterspace=500]{microtype}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}

\blindtext

\fontdimen2\font=1.5pt
\blindtext

\end{document}