{lengths} is for questions dealing with measurements in TeX. If your question is about the spacing between document elements, use {spacing} instead.
92
votes
4answers
18k views
Difference between \textwidth, \linewidth and \hsize
The three lengths \textwidth, \linewidth and \hsize seem to all hold the width of the current line. At least I never saw some real difference between \textwidth and \linewidth in my code. Both seem to ...
36
votes
2answers
9k views
Lengths and when to use them
There are many lengths in LaTeX. For instance, \enskip, \enspace, \quad, \parskip, \smallskip, ... Some of them are mostly used for vertical spacing, some others are mostly used for horizontal ...
34
votes
2answers
1k views
Is there a \show for lengths?
The \show command is extremely useful for figuring out what's going on with a particular macro. Similarly, using \the can tell me the value of a counter. I'd like to know if there's something ...
27
votes
2answers
385 views
What is truecm?
In examples found around the web, some people specify lengths such as width=5truecm with \includegraphics or the geometry package. How is this different from regular 5cm?
25
votes
3answers
5k views
Get width of a given text as length
Is there a TeX command that returns the width of a given text as length value, so that I can use the result directly as a length argument of another command?
I mean, I would like to have a command ...
25
votes
3answers
477 views
Is there a picture showing all the lengths used in lists?
I want to adjust the length parameters in a list (happens to be to make it more condensed, but that's not relevant). I do this infrequently enough that I don't remember all the lengths that are ...
21
votes
5answers
341 views
Test if a given control sequence is a length register
I'm in need of a macro which receives a control sequence as argument and needs to branch if this macro is actually a length (of any kind, e.g. dimen, skip etc.) or "just" a normal macro (including one ...
20
votes
2answers
522 views
Which is better: a dimension or a macro?
When messing around with TikZ/PGF then I frequently find myself wanting to store a length for later use. By "length" here, I mean the word in its non-TeX meaning. As I'm doing stuff in TikZ/PGF then ...
20
votes
5answers
4k views
How can I change the indentation in quote and quotation environments and commands?
I need to change the indentation that the quote and quotation environments and commands employ. I assume that there is some length I need to set, but I've googled around, and cannot find what I am ...
19
votes
3answers
795 views
How do I get the exact dimension of a picture in LaTeX?
This question is pretty simple: I'd like to have the possibility to get the exact size of a picture in LaTeX with, for example, the macro \the.
In fact, I've founded the way \settoheight{} and so on, ...
17
votes
2answers
211 views
Defining a dimension with or without @
If I am writing a TeX package (as one can find such on CTAN), there are following approaches to define a new dimension length that should be changeable by a user of that package.
Approach A: Define ...
16
votes
4answers
821 views
A line of length \textwidth in TikZ
Why does the following latex document:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) -- (\textwidth,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
...
16
votes
3answers
10k views
Determine text width
For sizing figures in LaTeX it's helpful to know how wide the text is so that figures can be sized to match without rescaling. LaTeX provides \textwidth for reference by other commands, e.g.
...
16
votes
2answers
2k views
What are the differences between \newdimen, \newskip and \newlength?
What are the differences between \newdimen, \newskip, and\newlength?
When should I use each of them? Please give me a non-trivial example for each case.
15
votes
2answers
6k views
What is the difference between `\hspace*{\fill}` and `\hfill`?
In the memoir manual on page 183 ,this example is given:
\begin{figure}
\centering
\hspace*{\fill}
{ILLUSTRATION 1} \hfill {ILLUSTRATION 2}
\hspace*{\fill}
\caption{Example float with two ...
14
votes
1answer
788 views
How to preserve the same parskip in minipage
I have following structure:
\begin{document}
Paragraph1.
Paragraph2.
\begin{minipage}
Some paragraph1.
Some paragraph2.
\end{minipage}
\end{document}
How can I make the same spacing between ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the difference between \def and \newlength?
I wrote the following LaTeX documents.
\documentclass[11pt]{book}
\newlength{\mywidth}
\newlength{\myheight}
\setlength{\mywidth}{85mm}
\setlength{\myheight}{112mm}
\newcommand{\setpagesize}[2]{%
...
12
votes
3answers
504 views
How can I know the default PGF line width?
Is there some macro that will tell me what the default PGF line width is? I have tried creating my own macro by cloning \pgflinewidth before it has been modified, i.e.
...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Why doesn't \settoheight of \parbox work?
Consider the following code:
\documentclass[a4paper]{letter}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{printlen}
\newsavebox{\foobox}
\newlength{\fooboxheight}
\savebox{\foobox}{
...
12
votes
2answers
590 views
Where is the left-hand margin?
I'm working on the TikZ-from-TeX-SX package, specifically developing the code for putting equation numbering at places within a tikzpicture environment. To do this, I need to know where the text ...
11
votes
3answers
419 views
Measure the length of the lowercase alphabet
In the memoir manual speaks about
measuring the length of the lowercase alphabet
in order to decide the numbers of characters per line. Can this be done with LaTeX?
11
votes
4answers
863 views
11
votes
2answers
136 views
Does a space belong after pt?
Does a space always belong after pt, e.g. as used in \hskip1pt? If a space is used, are there situations where a space will appear where it is not intended? If no space is used, will pt be ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
How to use \widthof as parameter to \kern
I sometimes encounter a problem when I attempt to use \widthof from the calc package, and don't know why. In the past I have just worked around it using a two step process of defining a \newdimen{} ...
10
votes
3answers
264 views
Retrieve length of a character
I'm creating a custom command which basically prints an horizontal line, a character and another horizontal line. The code would be
...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
String replacement in LaTeX
I'd like to know how to replace parts of a string in LaTeX. Specifically I'm given a measurement (like 3pt, 10mm, etc) and I'd like to remove the units of that measurement (so 3pt-->3, 10mm-->10, ...
10
votes
1answer
533 views
Why do \setcounter and \addtocounter commands have global effect, while \setlength and \addtolength commands obey the normal scoping rules?
The \setcounter and \addtocounter commands have global effect,
while the \setlength and \addtolength commands obey the normal
scoping rules.
Why were they designed like this? Why are ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
Tikz - move/reposition arrow decorations (arrowhead length/size)
I'm trying to build a 'dimension line' macro for Tikz:
\documentclass{article}
% note: with \documentclass{minimal}, this example fails with:
% ! Undefined control sequence.
% ...
9
votes
5answers
471 views
Push/Pop or save a length/dimension?
Is it possible to push or pop a length like parindent? I want to change it temporarily but reset it soon after.
I have a solution but looking for something a little nicer. I'll post it as an answer.
9
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the difference between \fboxsep=1cm and \setlength{\fboxsep}{1cm}?
Question has been written above.
9
votes
2answers
157 views
Other than syntax what is the difference between \dimen0= and \setlength{}{}?
I have been browsing around for a while trying to find an answer to the above question, and I have found some similar questions along with there answers, so I already have a vague idea how to answer ...
9
votes
2answers
237 views
Confused with whether or not I have to use \the
I got confused with whether or not I have to use \the.
\the in \special{papersize=\the\paperwidth,\the\paperheight} is mandatory.
But \the in neither ...
9
votes
2answers
469 views
What is the plain TeX equivalent of \settowidth?
The \settowidth command, which sets a width equal to the width of some text, is described at Get width of a given text as length and How to set the width of the label of a description to the width of ...
9
votes
2answers
118 views
Compute remaining horizontal space in align environment
I use align* often and sometimes it is preferable to add text to the right hand side of an equation instead of using \intertext, or \shortintertext, which tends to interrupt the math flow. This is ...
9
votes
2answers
630 views
Does {1em} mean {1em plus0pt minus0pt}?
Is plus0pt and minus0pt automatically added if I write, e.g.,
\setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{1em}
\setlength{\jot}{0pt}
\setlength{\parsep}{0pt}
...
9
votes
2answers
243 views
Page geometry discrepancies
In the Companion 2nd Edition Table 4.2 shows page geometry values for various font sizes of the letterpaper paper size. These differ sometimes substantially from current values of the standard ...
9
votes
1answer
480 views
How do I set \itemsep to rubber length?
I know that I can set \itemsep to any length like this,
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}
But if I want to set \itemsep to a rubber length (e.g. \bigskip), how do I do this?
\setlength{\itemsep}{\bigskip} ...
8
votes
2answers
674 views
How to enable use of minus and plus in tex documents?
I see many cls files using plus and minus operators to set lengths. How can I use these operators (or some equivalent macro(s)) to do something like the following?
\setlength{\lengtha}{.5\textwidth}
...
8
votes
2answers
314 views
How does the enumitem package place the labels?
In the following screenshot, I would like the 1st item A) in the inline mode to be at the same level of indentation of the labels A) to D) in the first list.
To do that I would like to know how the ...
8
votes
1answer
363 views
How does PDF or PDF Viewer define a rounding rule for stroke thickness?
I defined a sequence of line segments of different thickness each as follows.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multido}
\parindent=0sp
\begin{document}
...
8
votes
2answers
122 views
Where should 1em be defined - when to use lengths in “em”
The table in the document below looks as expected when using the article document class. With other document classes, the rules dissapear.
The reason seems to be that booktabs defines the with of ...
8
votes
1answer
214 views
calc package incompatible with \setlength in \g@addto@macro?
I want to systematically have some indentation in \parboxes and minipage environments. To do this, I add the following code in the preambule of my LaTeX file:
\makeatletter
...
8
votes
1answer
163 views
How to compute exact width added by \left. \right
I have defined macros to produce resizable brackets that also work across line breaks.
This necessitated the use of and additional set of \left. and \right. which add a bit of horizontal space.
...
7
votes
2answers
225 views
How can I globally set pgfmathsetlength?
How can I declare a length via pgfmathsetlength global?
The example results in
20pt -- 5pt -- 20pt
But I had expected:
20pt -- 5pt -- 5pt
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\parindent0pt
...
7
votes
3answers
334 views
Making register declarations local, Undefining a register (count, toks, etc.)
Is it possible to make \newcount, \newtoks, etc. respect grouping, so that, e.g., \newcount\temp\temp=2{\newcount\temp\temp=1}\showthe\temp gives 2 (instead of 0)?
Relatedly, is it possible to ...
7
votes
2answers
637 views
Nominal values for \parindent and other paragraph metrics
In memoir, when I run
\documentclass{memoir}
\begin{document}
\showthe\parindent
\end{document}
I get:
17.62482 pt
My questions are :
Why that value? This number seems to capture something ...
7
votes
1answer
296 views
How to fix TikZ node's height with \heightof?
I can use \widthof{text} to fix a minimum width of a TikZ's node. I would like to use \heightof{text} to fix its minimum height but it doesn't work.
I just want to fill my nodes with one word but I ...
7
votes
1answer
126 views
\parskip stretches more than expected
I wonder if I get something wrong with TeX’s glue concept. If define a length to be 2pt plus 1pt minus 1pt I expect that the length should be exactly 2pt where possible an if not it should be between ...
7
votes
1answer
416 views
How to get width of equation
If I want to know the width of a text I use
\settowidth{\MyLength}{bla}.
Is there something similar for equations?
More specifically I have
\begin{align}
a & b & c & d\\
c & d ...
6
votes
4answers
591 views
A macro that expands to the length of its argument
If I want to anonymise a paper I've written for review, I don't just want to delete my name from the author field. I want to replace my name with a rule as tall as a capital letter and as long as my ...
