There are a number of factors involved in font spacing, including inter word spacing, inter character spacing, inter word stretch, etc. Stefan Kottwitz' blog on Full justification with typewriter font covers all these in an example based on the Computer Modern Typewriter font (\ttfamily
, \texttt
, etc.).
More specifically, the following dimensions may be set for a font:
- Slant:
\fontdimen1
- Inter word space:
\fontdimen2
- Inter word stretch:
\fontdimen3
- Inter word shrink:
\fontdimen4
- Extra space:
\fontdimen7
- xspace skip:
\xspaceskip
- Hyphenation character:
\hyphenchar
In order to decrease the space between words, you can either change the inter word space/stretch. here are some examples that show the difference:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\newdimen\origiwspc%
\newdimen\origiwstr%
\origiwspc=\fontdimen2\font% original inter word space
\origiwstr=\fontdimen3\font% original inter word stretch
\lipsum[1]% normal text
\fontdimen2\font=0.2ex% inter word space
\lipsum[1]% decreased inter word space
\fontdimen2\font=\origiwspc% (original) inter word space
\fontdimen3\font=0.1em% inter word stretch
\lipsum[1]% decreased inter word stretch
\fontdimen3\font=\origiwstr% (original) inter word stretch
\fontdimen2\font=1em% inter word space
\lipsum[1]% increased inter word space and stretch
\fontdimen2\font=\origiwspc% (original) inter word space
\fontdimen3\font=\origiwstr% (original) inter word stretch
\lipsum[1]% original/normal text
\end{document}
This is what it looks like:
