Dedicated symbol for [...] in quotations?

Question

I would like to use [...] in quotations to indicate a part which was not included. Just entering [...] does not render it perfectly in my opinion. Is there a special way of inputing said symbol? Thanks.

Answer 1

You can define your own macro for this:

\newcommand{\omissis}{[\dots\unkern]}

or use the \textelp{} macro from csquotes.

Note that \textelp is a macro taking an argument, so the {} after it is mandatory in order to get [...].

A different possibility is to add the kerning also in front of the dots:

\newcommand{\somissis}{[\,\dots]}

Here'a a minimal document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csquotes} % necessary only for \textelp

\newcommand{\omissis}{[\dots\unkern]}
\newcommand{\somissis}{[\kern\fontdimen3\font\dots]}

\begin{document}
A \somissis{} B

A \omissis{} B

A \textelp{} B

\end{document}

---

The macro \dots is defined by LaTeX as

% latex.ltx, line 1807:
\DeclareRobustCommand{\dots}{%
   \ifmmode\mathellipsis\else\textellipsis\fi}

In text mode \textellipsis is used, which is

% latex.ltx, line 1784:
\DeclareTextCommandDefault{\textellipsis}{%
   .\kern\fontdimen3\font
   .\kern\fontdimen3\font
   .\kern\fontdimen3\font}

Here \fontdimen3\font is the stretch component of the normal interword space (why this has been chosen would be matter for a debate). The final kerning is responsible for the uneven space; it's desirable in normal text, but not before the closing bracket, so \omissis removes it.