# too much spacing in xymatrix

I am using xypic package and I wrote the following xymatrix

  $\xymatrix{ x \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{a} \\ | \\ y \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{b}\\ | \\ z \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{c} }$


but the spacing on the output pdf file is pretty bad (there is too much gap/spacing between the rows). I spent some time modifying as in 3.3 Spacing and rotation [page 9] from this link http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~cautis/tools/xypic.pdf but that link is not helping.

Is there a way to make the gap between the rows smaller?

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You can regulate the interrow spacing with @R; for example the following code shortens it by 2pc (24pt, but it's customary to reason in terms of picas).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[all,cmtip]{xy}
\begin{document}
$\xymatrix@R-2pc{ x \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{a} \\ | \\ y \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{b} \\ | \\ z \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{c} }$
\end{document}


A different approach is to use tipless arrows, again shortening the space between rows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[all,cmtip]{xy}
\begin{document}
$\xymatrix@R-1pc{ x \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{a} \ar@{-}[d] \\ y \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{b} \ar@{-}[d] \\ z \ar@(ur,dr)[]|{c} }$
\end{document}


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Thank you egreg! What you did is beautiful! –  math-visitor Oct 21 '12 at 17:05