How to set superscript footnote mark in the text body but normalsized in the foot?

Question

I want the footnote mark to be superscripted in the text body (e.g. Footnote mark²), but normalsize in the foot, to be shown like:

________________
2. Some footnote text

Also, it would be nice if the mark appeared hanging in the left margin, like

   ________________
2. Some footnote text

(That is recommended by Bringhurst in his Elements of Typographic Style)

Answer 1

Use the scrextend package (part of KOMA-script) to customize footnotes. See section 3.14 of the documentation of KOMA-script for details about the \deffootnote macro.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{scrextend}
\deffootnote{0em}{1.6em}{\thefootnotemark.\enskip}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

\blindtext\footnote{\blindtext}

\end{document}

Answer 2

I already had a solution for this problem, which I managed to come up by trial and error... I just didn't know if it was the best way to do it:

\makeatletter
  \renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{%
  \hspace*{-2em}
  \parindent 0em
  \noindent
  \hb@xt@ 1.8em{\hss %  There's the option of putting \hss before
  \@thefnmark. }%       or after \@thefnmark, aligning the footnote
  #1}%                  marks to the right or to the left, respectively
\makeatother

I tried to look at the definition of \deffootnote in scrextend.sty, but it seems to be much more complicated than that...

Anyway, the solution proposed by @lockstep is much simpler than this, although this one might be useful for class authors. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

This is a TeX approach, with doesn't need a package. I use it always. Maybe the code can be improved:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newlength{\fnBreite}
\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{%
  \settowidth{\fnBreite}{\footnotesize\@thefnmark.i}
  \protect\footnotesize\upshape%
  \setlength{\@tempdima}{\columnwidth}\addtolength{\@tempdima}{-\fnBreite}%
  \makebox[\fnBreite][l]{\@thefnmark.\phantom{}}%
  \parbox[t]{\@tempdima}{\everypar{\hspace*{1em}}\hspace*{-1em}\upshape#1}}
\makeatother

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

\blindtext\footnote{\blindtext}

\end{document}

Answer 4

I found that using the scrextend package for customizing footnotes can introduce issues (such as the suppression of the footnote marker when including a footnote in a section heading). Hence, here’s a solution that does not rely on scrextend:

In order to prevent the footnote marker from being superscripted in the footnote text, you can use the following. I did not find this code to create any problems regarding splitting very long footnotes over multiple pages.

\documentclass{article}

\newlength{\templength}
\newlength{\textparindent}
\setlength{\textparindent}{\parindent}
\makeatletter
\let \@makefntextorig \@makefntext
    % Saving the original definition so we can reuse it if necessary.
\newcommand{\@makefntextcustom}[1]{%
    \parindent 2\textparindent%
    \hspace{-\textparindent}%
    \settowidth{\templength}{0}%
    \ifnum\value{footnote}<10 \hspace{\templength}\else\fi%
    \thefootnote.\enskip #1%
}
\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{\@makefntextcustom{#1}}
\makeatother

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs.\par A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}

\end{document}

In order to move the footnote marker into the margin (Bringhurst-style), here’s a variant of the above:

\documentclass{article}

\newlength{\templength}
\newlength{\textparindent}
\setlength{\textparindent}{\parindent}
\makeatletter
\let \@makefntextorig \@makefntext
    % Saving the original definition so we can reuse it if necessary.
\newcommand{\@makefntextcustom}[1]{%
    \parindent \textparindent%
    \hspace{-\textparindent}\hspace{-100pt}\makebox[100pt][r]{\thefootnote.\enskip}%
    #1%
}
\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{\@makefntextcustom{#1}}
\makeatother

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote. A~\emph{long} test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs.\par A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs. A~\emph{very long} test footnote including two paragraphs.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
Some text.\footnote{A~test footnote.}\par
\setcounter{footnote}{0}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{\@makefntextorig{#1}}
\makeatother
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}
Some text.\footnote{A~footnote after switching back to the original definition.}

\end{document}