How to use fontawesome with fixed width?

Question

I'm using XeLaTeX and fontawesome package.

This is my MWE:

\documentclass[]{article}
\RequirePackage{fontspec}
\RequirePackage{fontawesome}

\begin{document}

\section{\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\section{\faBook \textbackslash faBook}

\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBook \textbackslash publications

\end{document}

And this is the cropped result:

How can I obtain a fixed width with fontawesome icons? I don't want to manually adjust the space each time and the solution should work both in simple text and inside sections.

Edit: If I could choose between ragged left, right or centered would be perfect.

Answer 1

With XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX, a command such as \faBook gets translated into \faicon{book}, with a predefined table; so what we want to change is the action of \faicon, which by default is

\newcommand*{\faicon}[1]{{\csname faicon@#1\endcsname}}

Just change this into

\renewcommand*{\faicon}[1]{{\makebox[1.5em][c]{\csname faicon@#1\endcsname}}

I'm afraid you will have to adjust visually the fixed width depending on the widest icon you need to print.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{fontawesome}

\renewcommand*{\faicon}[1]{\makebox[1.5em][c]{\csname faicon@#1\endcsname}}

\begin{document}

\section{\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\section{\faBook \textbackslash faBook}

\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBook \textbackslash publications

\end{document}

You can add an optional alignment argument to all fontawesome commands. The \ignorespaces makes the commands ignore a following space even if present, so

\faBook Publications
\faBook[r] Publications

are the same as

\faBook Publications
\faBook[r]Publications

and you don't need to worry about spaces if you add the optional argument.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{fontawesome}
\usepackage{xparse}

\RenewDocumentCommand{\faicon}{mO{c}}{%
  \makebox[1.5em][#2]{\csname faicon@#1\endcsname}\ignorespaces
}

\begin{document}

\section{\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\section{\faBook \textbackslash faBook}

\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBook \textbackslash publications

\noindent
\vrule\faGraduationCap\vrule\faBook\vrule \\
\vrule\faGraduationCap[l]\vrule\faBook[l]\vrule \\
\vrule\faGraduationCap[r]\vrule\faBook[r]\vrule

\end{document}

Answer 2

You could wrap the icons in a box of a fixed width. Furthermore I‘d make a new macro for this, to easily change the width later for example:

% !TeX program = xelatex
\documentclass{article}
\RequirePackage{fontspec}
\RequirePackage{fontawesome}

\newcommand{\faBox}[1]{%
   \makebox[1.25em][l]{%
      \csname fa#1\endcsname   
   }%
}

\begin{document}

\section{\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\section{\faBook \textbackslash faBook}

\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBook \textbackslash publications

\section{\faBox{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\section{\faBox{Book} \textbackslash faBook}

\faBox{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBox{Book} \textbackslash publications

\end{document}

The first argument of \makebox is the width, the second (optional) one the alignment in the box (center = default, left or right) and the last one is the content of the box, which actually could be wider than the box itself. In this case it‘ll overflow the box.

\csname and \endcsname can be used to “construct” a macro name an call it.

Answer 3

I did an answer only because it has an additional feature. However, for an obviously reason, I will not mark my answer as an accepted one.

In the following an improvement of Tobi's answer. I added as optional argument the alignment inside the box.

\documentclass[]{article}
\RequirePackage{fontspec}
\RequirePackage{fontawesome}

\newcommand{\faBox}[2][c]{%
   \makebox[1em][#1]{%
      \csname fa#2\endcsname
   }%
}

\begin{document}

\section{No \textbackslash fabox}

\subsection*{\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\subsection*{\faBook \textbackslash faBook}

\faGraduationCap \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBook \textbackslash publications

\section{Default \textbackslash fabox}

\subsection*{\faBox{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\subsection*{\faBox{Book} \textbackslash faBook}

\faBox{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBox{Book} \textbackslash publications

\section{Left \textbackslash fabox}

\subsection*{\faBox[l]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\subsection*{\faBox[l]{Book} \textbackslash faBook}

\faBox[l]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBox[l]{Book} \textbackslash publications

\section{Center (default) \textbackslash box}

\subsection*{\faBox[c]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\subsection*{\faBox[c]{Book} \textbackslash faBook}

\faBox[c]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBox[c]{Book} \textbackslash publications

\section{Right \textbackslash box}

\subsection*{\faBox[r]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap}
\subsection*{\faBox[r]{Book} \textbackslash faBook}

\faBox[r]{GraduationCap} \textbackslash faGraduationCap\par\noindent
\faBox[r]{Book} \textbackslash publications

\end{document}

And this is the result.