# Is there an ex unit equivalent for the capital 'X' in LaTeX

In LaTeX, the ex unit represents the height of a lowercase 'x' in the current font.

Is there a length in LaTeX that represents the height of a capital 'X'?

The information about 1ex is stored in the font; it is usually the height of a lowercase ‘x’, but it need not be necessarily.

You can access the height of an uppercase ‘X’ by

\fontcharht\fontX


A way for expressing lengths in this ‘unit of measure’ is

\newcommand{\eX}{\dimexpr\fontcharht\fontX\relax}


so you can say something like

\vspace{1.2\eX}


or

\setlength{\mylen}{2\eX}


where \mylen has been allocated with \newlength.

• Somehow off-topic comment-question (;-)): Which commands do define 1ex to be (most times) the height of an x and which do deviate from them, and why? – user31729 Jun 20 '14 at 13:46
• @ChristianHupfer See Johan's answer Q:4239 – percusse Jun 20 '14 at 13:47
• @ChristianHupfer No command defines 1ex; it's information stored in the font, it's the font designer's responsibility fixing it. – egreg Jun 20 '14 at 13:48
• @ChristianHupfer When a font is loaded, TeX builds an internal array where the \fontdimen parameters defined in the font are stored. A font need have at least seven \fontdimen parameters, but may have more (math symbol fonts need 22, math extension fonts need 13). The x-height is \fontdimen5; when TeX scans 1ex or 2.5ex, it looks at the internal array for the fifth value; you could also say 2.5\fontdimen5\font and achieve the same result. – egreg Jun 20 '14 at 13:55
• The \fontcharht is the case of the eTeX extension. It isn't icluded in standard TeX. The \dimexpr is the same case. – wipet Jun 23 '14 at 20:15