# Text is “Clipped” in Animation

I want to animate text and equations (no pictures) in LaTeX. I tried out the animate package, but I find that my text is often clipped at the top and bottom.

Here is a minimal example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{animate}

\begin{document}
\begin{animateinline}[autoplay,loop]{2}
\multiframe{10}{n=0+1}{
\n
}
\end{animateinline}
\end{document}

When I compile it with pdflatex and view the result in Adobe Reader XI, the numbers are clipped at the top and bottom, as you can see here with the number 8 (zoom @ 800%):

Is there a method to prevent this? Or is the animate package not the right tool for this job?

The glyph boxes of TeX are often smaller than the real dimensions of the glyphs. Don't know why TeX is designed like this. To avoid clipping of the glyphs, put a \strut in front of the text. Afaik, the sum of height and depth of a \strut is equal to \baselineskip of the current font:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calc}
\newlength\mytotalheight

\begin{document}
\verb+\normalsize+:
\settototalheight\mytotalheight{\strut}\the\mytotalheight$=$\the\baselineskip

\verb+\huge:+\huge
\settototalheight\mytotalheight{\strut}\the\mytotalheight$=$\the\baselineskip
\end{document}

Also put the text in a box of the same width for every frame. Otherwise larger numbers get squeezed if you start with a single digit number.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{animate}

\begin{document}
\begin{animateinline}[autoplay,loop]{2}
\multiframe{11}{n=0+1}{
\strut\makebox[2em][r]{\n}
}
\end{animateinline}
\end{document}
• Thank you for warning me about the squeezing. I was unaware that "animate" uses the size of the animation's first frame for all subsequent frames. – Martin J.H. May 8 '14 at 8:44