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I would like to increase the minimum space between a footnote mark and the preceding text. Furthermore, I would like to decrease the minimum space between the footnote mark and the following text. He only questions I found where about the space between the footnote index and the footnote text, but that is not what I want. Here is an image of the current behavior (on the left; in some cases it looks like there is no space between the text and the number) and the desired behavior (on the right):

enter image description here

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The mark is set in two locations - first in the text, and once in the footnote. You seem to only be interested in updating the in-text display.

The following minimal example updates \@makefnmark to add some space before and remove some space afterwards. It also updates it only in the in-text display:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[paperheight=15\baselineskip]{geometry}% Just for this example

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
% \def\@makefnmark{\hbox{\@textsuperscript{\normalfont\@thefnmark}}}
\let\old@makefnmark\@makefnmark
\newcommand{\@newmakefnmark}{\hbox{\kern.1em \@textsuperscript{\normalfont\@thefnmark}\kern-.1em}}
\patchcmd{\@makefntext}{\@makefnmark}{\old@makefnmark}{}{}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

This is some text\footnote{A footnote}.

\makeatletter
\let\@makefnmark\@newmakefnmark
\setcounter{footnote}{0}
\makeatother

This is some text\footnote{A footnote}.

\end{document}

You can adjust the length in \kern 1em to push the mark further to the left, as well as adjusting the length in \kern -.1em to bring the subsequent content closer to it.

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  • Can I ask whether there could be any problem caused by changing \@makefntext? I have the same problem as this person and it's difficult to figure out whether it's because of my tweak: \makeatletter\renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent{\@makefnmark} #1}\makeatother.
    – user21820
    May 13, 2018 at 18:44
  • @user21820: The only way to assess the problem is via a minimal example, because I'm unable to replicate it as-is.
    – Werner ♦
    May 14, 2018 at 16:56
  • @Werner: Ok thanks. I'll see if I can get one maybe a few weeks later. In my case, it's like ten pages and practically anything I delete makes the problem line appear, as well as either of the following apparently unrelated things: (1) use textcolor to make the first word of that line black (no visible difference!); (2) Using \makeatletter\renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent{\@makefnmark}~#1}\makeatother instead.
    – user21820
    May 14, 2018 at 18:14

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