Tagged Questions
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?
9
votes
2answers
480 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 ...
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 ...
20
votes
2answers
525 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
335 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
847 views
How can the dimensions of a box be retrieved with LaTeX
One can specify a box in LaTeX, using various methods for example:
\newsavebox{\Abox}
\savebox{\Abox}{\parbox{4cm}{\lorem}}
\usebox{\Abox}
How can I retrieve the width, height and depth of the ...
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 ...
