Questions about TeX's length units.
6
votes
2answers
146 views
How do I convert pt/in/cm/mm to em/ex as they are defined at a given point in the document?
I am using various macros that I have fine-tuned with units like pt and cm. I use those macros normally in certain places (say, in main body text or in footnote text). To properly generalize those ...
20
votes
2answers
235 views
Where do the values of 1em and 1ex come from?
In my answer to “Which measurement units should one use in LaTeX?” I explore the values of 1em and 1ex for different fonts using both TFM fonts and the font mechanisms of XeLaTeX that uses non-TFM ...
5
votes
2answers
292 views
Which unit of measurement for textwidth?
Which unit of measurement should I use to specify \textwidth?
I used to specify \textheight in cm but read in some doc that one should always use multiples of \baselineskip. Indeed, the output ...
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 ...
2
votes
3answers
199 views
How to add a unit to a command argument?
Currently I set up a box of given length #1 and width #2 like this:
\newcommand{\mybox}[2]{
This is a box of #1 by #2 centimeters:
\framebox{\hbox to #1cm {\vbox to #2cm}}
}
% Usage:
...
17
votes
1answer
2k views
What are the possible dimensions / sizes / units LaTeX understands?
I know there are different ways of expressing sizes or dimensions in LaTeX such as points (pt), inches (in) and ex.
As some commands, such as \hspace understand all of them, I would like to have a ...
11
votes
4answers
863 views
11
votes
1answer
242 views
Measuring the distance from text to the top of the page
How can I obtain a measurement from the baseline of any line of text in a document to top of the body of text on a page?
15
votes
3answers
3k views
Setting a document in MS Word-12pt (12bp)
Warning
If you're looking for advice how to make your document look like it's been written in Word, this is most likely not the question you're looking for. This question is mostly of theoretical ...
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}
...
2
votes
2answers
221 views
What unit should we use when working with (La)TeX and PSTricks to minimize conversion error?
I want to minimize conversion error when working with PSTricks and (La)TeX. The conversion error really affects the accuracy of bounding box, the thickness of LaTeX's \fbox and the thickness of ...
12
votes
2answers
567 views
Globally redefining 1 pt to 1/72 in (PostScript point) and other similar changes
Introduction
TeX point (1 pt in TeX) equals 1/72.27 in (= 2540/7227 mm ≈ 0.35145980351 mm). Quoting part of Traditional American point system section from Wikipedia's Point (typography) entry:
In ...
-1
votes
2answers
1k views
Latex commands for a specific page format [closed]
I am writing a report for which my University has given the following guidelines (Clearly, it was intended for use with Microsoft Windows).
Project reports should be typed only on one side of the ...
35
votes
8answers
4k views
What are the various units (ex, em, in, pt, bp, dd, pc) expressed in mm?
How can one determine the length of the different units (measured 1ex, 1em, 1in, 1pt, 1bp, 1dd, 1pc) in mm?
70
votes
3answers
5k views
Which measurement units should one use in LaTeX?
There are various measurement units that one can use (such as pt, mm, in, em, ex etc.) for specifying lengths and heights. For font-based units (em and ex) the actual spacing will vary slightly ...
