# Reduce the number of lines of a paragraph [duplicate]

How can I tell Latex that I want my paragraph with n less lines? I saw a question some days ago, but after twenty minutes of heavy searching (I think), I found nothing.

There is a “penalty” or something like that which asks Latex to try to put the text in less lines. Something like `\reducelines=-1` asks Latex (TeX) to reduce the number of lines by one.

I know this is a duplicate, but I can't find the “original” question.

## marked as duplicate by egreg, Manuel, Heiko Oberdiek, Guido, Paul StanleyApr 26 '14 at 21:23

• The keyword to look for is `\looseness`: for instance tex.stackexchange.com/questions/146890/… and tex.stackexchange.com/questions/168611/… – egreg Apr 26 '14 at 20:34
• Indeed, it is. There is a problem, though: I found no succesful question/answer looking in this site. I think that some question titles (about this particular problem) should be rewritten for future users. – Manuel Apr 26 '14 at 20:37
• I don't know why, but those don't appear when you search for, e.g., `number lines paragraph`. When Werners answer explicitly says that, for instance. This is a duplicate, but I think those questions should be edited in a way future users will find the solution easier. The one I was looking for was @Aditya 's one. – Manuel Apr 26 '14 at 20:38
• If this remains open, I invite everyone to edit my question so that it's more easy to find, in case someone in the future wants to. – Manuel Apr 26 '14 at 20:59

There is a parameter `\looseness`: With `\looseness=1` TeX will try to make the paragraph a line longer, with `\looseness=-1`, a line shorter. Also higher values can tried, but longer paragraphs would be useful for TeX to have a chance.

At the start or a paragraph, `\looseness` is reset to zero, see procedure `normal_paragraph` in `tex.web` (other parameters that are reset there are `\hangindent`, `\hangafter`, and `\parshape`).

At the end of the paragraph, `\losseness` is evaluated, when TeX breaks the paragraph into lines.

Therefore, `\looseness` should be placed inside the paragraph, e.g. right before the end:

``````Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac,
• How do I use it? Wher should I place `\looseness=-1`? – StrawberryFieldsForever Oct 24 '17 at 14:50
• @StrawberryFieldsForever TeX tries to make the paragraph shorter or longer depending on the value of `\looseness`. But, this does not always succeed, depending on the contents of the paragraph, the possible break points, ... – Heiko Oberdiek Oct 30 '17 at 22:47