I cannot remember how to create an invisible character in LaTeX, i.e. I want to put a space that has the width of a particular character, say `M'. I know there is a command for this, and this is a really dumb question, but my Google-fu has failed me.
You already found the answer, but let me expand a bit. There are three phantom commands. They each take a single argument.
\hphantom(horizontal phantom) inserts an empty box that has zero height, zero depth, but the width of its argument.\vphantom(vertical phantom) inserts an empty box that has the height and depth of the argument, but zero width.\phantominserts an empty box with the same dimensions (horizontal as well as vertical) as the argument.
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51
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90Height is the length above the baseline, depth is the length below. So a character such as "X" will have a height but zero depth, and "g" has (a smaller) height as well as depth. – Will Robertson Oct 25 '10 at 3:44
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8@Kit: You might also want to see the illustration in the question tex.stackexchange.com/q/151584/25077 – strpeter May 27 '14 at 15:00
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1Also Alexander R. Perlis' article in TUGboat, Volume 22 (2001), No. 4, p.350ff., might be of interest (especially the illustrations). – Stephen Jun 26 '15 at 17:07
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2
Ok, this has already been answered so I just want to contribute with the usage of the \phantom command.
\begin{document}
This text will be visible. \\
\phantom{This text will be invisible} \\
\fbox{\phantom{This text will be invisible too, but a box will be printed arround it.}}
\end{document}
answered Jun 28 '16 at 20:48
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12As I said, I just wanted to contribute with HOW to use it ;) – Christian Rodriguez Jun 29 '16 at 17:02
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3Thanks @ChristianRodriguez , I was hunting around as to what the actual format was, and then saw your answer. – abeverley Apr 19 '17 at 10:52
OK, I finally found it. The command is \phantom.
answered Oct 24 '10 at 21:05
