5

I would like to rotate blockquote'd text by 180 degrees, but don't know how. Thanks for your help!

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
I would like to mirror (rotate 180 degree) this blockquote:

\blockquote[{\cite{nothing}}][]%missing ref doesn't matter here
{\lipsum[1]}

But I don't know how. The result from this test looks ugly 
(see the width, alignment and quotation marks for example):

\rotatebox{180}{%
    \parbox{\textwidth}{%
        \blockquote[{\cite{nothing}}][]%missing ref doesn't matter here
        {\lipsum[1]}%
    }%
}

Thank you very much for your help!
\end{document}

As blockquote seams to make some problems, I've used the simpler displayquote-environment (this workaround was suggested by UlrikeFischer, thanks). The result looks better, but not fine (see the horizontal alignment and compare it to the original blockquote's position). The following MWE demonstrates this:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{showframe}

\newcommand{\shortLorem}{%
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut 
    purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, 
    felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, 
    nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec 
    vehicula augue eu neque.}

\begin{document}

\blockquote[{\cite{nothing}}][]%missing ref doesn't matter here
{\shortLorem}

%\noindent
\rotatebox{180}{%
    \parbox{\textwidth}{%
        \begin{displayquote}[\cite{nothing}]
            \shortLorem
        \end{displayquote}%
    }%
}%

\end{document}
Improve this question
6
  • 2
    Rotation and mirroring are not the same thing... Also, it looks like you have found out how to achieve what you want, but complain that it "looks ugly". So what precisely is the question? "How to make rotated text look better?"
    – Seamus
    Aug 22, 2016 at 11:02
  • It is not just ugly - it does not work (e.g. see the added quotation marks, or the distance to the next paragraph)
    – lAtExFaN
    Aug 22, 2016 at 11:14
  • 5
    Don't use blockquote. That's a quite complicated command. Use e.g. the displayquote environment. And don't forget a \noindent before the \rotatebox.
    – Ulrike Fischer
    Aug 22, 2016 at 12:34
  • Thank you very much @UlrikeFischer! Using the displayquote-environment looks fine (but the quotation seems to look better aligned without the \noindet before \rotatebox - what am I missing?).
    – lAtExFaN
    Aug 22, 2016 at 12:45
  • Interesting question. The list inside the parbox reduces its width. Not quite sure, if this is a bug or a feature.
    – Ulrike Fischer
    Aug 22, 2016 at 13:33

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Something like this?

rotated quotation

This is not mirrored, of course. It is rotated through 180 degrees. But this seems to be what you are trying to do.

\documentclass{article}

% \usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{showframe}

\newcommand{\shortLorem}{%
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut
  purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae,
  felis. Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero,
  nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec
  vehicula augue eu neque.}

\begin{document}

\blockquote[{\cite{nothing}}][]%missing ref doesn't matter here
{\shortLorem}

\noindent
\rotatebox{180}{%
  \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
    \hfill
    \begin{displayquote}[\cite{nothing}]
      \shortLorem
    \end{displayquote}%
    \hfill
  \end{minipage}%
}%

\end{document}

[I only commented fontspec to avoid the slow compilation time since that wasn't essential to the question.]

Improve this answer
2
  • Note that it would work better with kantlipsum than lipsum because the example doesn't load the correct hyphenation patterns for the latter. microtype would also improve things, of course. ;)
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2016 at 12:05
  • As mentioned in the comments by Ulrike, blockquote is not suited to this kind of manipulation. Have you compared the definitions? blockquote is doing complex things, including boxing stuff etc. If you want to do the manipulation, you don't want to be clashing with existing manipulation. Of course, you could redefine blockquote, but that's a different matter.
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2016 at 15:26

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