Extending Alan Munn's proposition, I finally came out with this, which does not modify \_
, but still makes it right in PDFs (copying and searching work as they should)
\newcommand{\gendergap}{\kern-.5pt\adjustbox{scale={0.5}{1},raise={1.5pt}{\height}}{\textunderscore}\kern-.5pt}
Forscher\gendergap innen, Protagonist\gendergap innen
I also added these for having prettier source code:
\newcommand\g[2]{#1\gendergap #2}
\newcommand\n{"-\gendergap\relax{}in }
\newcommand\innen{"-\gendergap\relax{}in\-nen }
\WithSuffix\newcommand\n*{"-\gendergap\relax{}in} % needs \usepackage{suffix}
\WithSuffix\newcommand\innen*{"-\gendergap\relax{}in\-nen}
\g{Der}{die} Forscher\n und Forscher\innen*, Protagonist\innen und Protagonist\n*, etc
Additionally, they allow hyphenation before the _
(without it there would not be any hyphenation possibility within for example Forscher_in
, which is very long). This needs \usepackage{ngerman}
.
I named it \n
because \in
already exists (If you read the \
as an i
it does even make sense :) )
Complete document:
\documentclass[oneside]{scrbook}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage{ngerman} % for "- support
\usepackage{suffix} % for the star versions
\usepackage[pdftex]{adjustbox}
\newcommand{\gendergap}{\kern-.5pt\adjustbox{scale={0.5}{1},raise={1.5pt}{\height}}{\textunderscore}\kern-.5pt}
\newcommand\n{"-\gendergap\relax{}in }
\newcommand\innen{"-\gendergap\relax{}in\-nen }
\WithSuffix\newcommand\n*{"-\gendergap\relax{}in}
\WithSuffix\newcommand\innen*{"-\gendergap\relax{}in\-nen}
\begin{document}
Forscher\gendergap innen, Protagonist\gendergap innen, etc
Forscher\n und Forscher\innen*, Protagonist\innen und Protagonist\n*, etc
Line break demonstration: Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen Forscher\innen
\end{document}
\usepackage{times}
or\usepackage{palatino}
) give completely different results, probably much closer to what you would expect.