Typesetting with Inch Symbols and Sizes in Inches

Question

I'd be much obliged if somebody could tell me how to do the following.

• How does one typeset the symbol for inches in LaTeX? Is it "?. Lamport, nor Knuth seem to mention it.
• Assuming \inchcommand is the command that produces the inch symbol, does one insert a thin space before the command: 1\,\inchcommand?
• When you write 8.5 x 11 paper size, it is not clear the sizes are in inches. Is there a way to make the unit explicit?

Answer 1

In most style books it is recommended that you spell it out fully. If you however insist to typeset it as per the question use as follows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathpazo,amsmath}
\def\inch#1{#1''}
\def\ft#1{#1'\thinspace}
\begin{document}
    6'\thinspace30''
%or
    \ft2\inch6
\end{document}

You can use the same method for typesetting time this way as well. You can create commands to suit. Even better to typeset it straight into SI units and let TeX do the conversion.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\usepackage{fp}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\def\inch#1{#1''}
\def\ft#1{#1'\thinspace}
\def\inchtomm#1{%
   \FPmul\result{#1}{25.4}
   \FPround{\result}{\result}{2}
   \SI{\result}{\mm}}
\begin{document}
6'\thinspace30''

\ft2\inch6

\(\inchtomm{8.5}\times\inchtomm{11}\)

%or

\(8.5\thinspace\text{in}\times 11\thinspace\text{in}\)
\end{document}

If you absolutely need to typeset it in inches, use 8.5~in or \mbox{8.5\thinspace in}. Both are acceptable ways from a typesetting point of view.

Edit

Had a look at a few guides. The image is from Science and Technical Writing, a Manual of Style, 2nd Edition by Philip Rubens. (Highly recommended)

The overall consensus in the context you describe is to spell it out in full words. In tables, the inches appear as a heading and the by symbol used i.e., 5 x 10

The abbreviated form in text can take a stop or be left out in.; as units in my early Engineering Books always used it as in i.e., lb/in etc.

Answer 2

Independent of which symbol you actually go with you should make use of the siunitx package and use DeclareSIUnit to setup the meaning of \inch. That way you can use this unit in the same manner as the other SI units, and have all the flexibility that comes with the siunitx package.

In the MWE below, I have used in, but another alternate is to use \textquotedbl (\inchQ) as shown in the output:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}% Needed for \textquotedbl
\DeclareSIUnit[number-unit-product = {}]{\inchQ}{\textquotedbl}

\DeclareSIUnit[number-unit-product = {\thinspace}]{\inch}{in}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ll}
    \SI{8.5 x 11}{\inch}  & \SI[product-units = single]{8.5 x 11}{\inch}\\
    \SI{8.5 x 11}{\inchQ} & \SI[product-units = single]{8.5 x 11}{\inchQ}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Answer 3

If you do not want to bother with extra math packages, I would suggest you type the following:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

$8.5\,'' \times 11\,''$

\end{document}

Switching to math-mode will ensure that your quotation marks are actually typeset as inch signs and not as quotes (without messing up your quotes in text-mode, indeed). Lengths such as these should usually be typeset as math anyway (lining numbers, not proportional).

(And I have never seen anything about the thinspace, though it does not seem flawed to me. It may depend on the font you are using, though.)

Edit: Have a look at Bringhurst (p. 169 for instance). The inch marks are clearly heavier at the top than at the bottom. I don't know if inverting them (as Yiannis Lazarides has done) is also acceptable, but I have never seen it. He uses proportional numbers throughout – but I would think both lining and proportional would be correct, depending on the context of course (if there is no other math at all in your document, you might want to go for proportional, otherwise go for lining).

Answer 4

Personally, I don't think it's appropriate to use the mathmode commands \prime and \prime\prime (raised to superscript height, of course) to denote the length units foot and inch. Rather, these commands should be reserved for the angular units arc-minute and arc-second.

Hence, I'd advocate the use of ' and '' in text mode for feet and inches. If there's a chance you may need these unit designations in math mode, just create the macros

\newcommand\foot{\mbox{'}}  % if using amsmath package, use \text rather than \mbox
\newcommand\inch{\mbox{''}} 
\newcommand\feet\foot   % define the plural versions of the macros...
\newcommand\inches\inch
\newcommand\by{\mbox{$\times$}} % for "by", suppress spacing placed around `times`

in the preamble. This will let you typeset the dimensions of a standard piece of construction lumber in either math or text mode, viz.,

$2\inch \by 4\inches \by 8\feet$ % math mode
2\inch \by 4\inches \by 8\feet   % text mode, using the macros
2''\by4''\by8'                   % text mode, using double and single apostrophes

as follows: