# Decrease spacing between nodes and edges in forest

I would like to decrease the spacing between start and end of an edge so that edged .

Take the following illustration as example (Left: before; right: after):

Code for the left tree:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{forest}

\begin{document}
\begin{forest}
[A
[B]
[C]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}


You can adjust the inner sep, the l and l sep options:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{forest}

\begin{document}
\begin{forest}
[A
[B]
[C]
]
\end{forest}

\begin{forest} for tree={inner sep=2pt,l=10pt,l sep=10pt}
[A
[B]
[C]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}


• Note that l'=10pt, l sep'=10pt is quicker. @Paddre. – cfr Jan 29 '18 at 23:17
• @cfr Thanks for the hint. Could you explain why this the case and why inner sep'=2pt is not working? – Paddre Jan 30 '18 at 11:50
• @Paddre Because inner sep is a TikZ key and TikZ doesn't make a fast version available, whereas l and l sep are Forest keys and Forest does make fast versions available, which it calls l' and l sep'. You can say l sep'+=2pt for the same reason, but not inner sep'+=2pt or even inner sep+=2pt. TikZ doesn't support these keys. Perhaps it helps to say that l' is a different key from l. It is just that, by design, it does the same thing faster in simple cases. – cfr Jan 30 '18 at 23:21
• @cfr Thanks for the clarification. I always understood '= as an operator ;-) – Paddre Jan 31 '18 at 14:20

By using inner sep you can change size of the node

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{forest}

\begin{document}
\begin{forest}
for tree = {inner sep = 1pt}
[A
[B]
[C]
]
\end{forest}
\end{document}


• Thanks for your answer. I've been looking for that parameter. Right after posting the question I realized that my image was not exactly representing what I was looking for (less spacing rather than longer edges). I was hoping, that less spacing keeps the edge length but apparently there is some other parameter I need to adjust. Do you know, how I can achieve something like shown in the updated image? – Paddre Jan 29 '18 at 10:20