1

I'm using parallel footnotes in my document. Out of the box, it looks great:Footnote-sized footnotes, regular spacing However, I want to reduce the footnote size to \tiny. Easy enough with this command: \renewcommand\footnotesize{\tiny}

When I do this, the footnotes do indeed appear tiny, but the line spacing (line-height?) is retained from \footnotesize, making them look double spaced, and failing to achieve the intended spacing savings. See: Excess spacing in footnotes

I have experimented with no luck in trying to use the setspace package to apply just to the footnotes region. Also, I would like to avoid having to inject something into each footnote, preferring to define something upfront and have it apply globally.

Here's a minimal working example:

\documentclass[twoside,a5paper,6pt]{book} 
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{palatino}
\usepackage{lipsum}  
\usepackage{setspace}  
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage[para,hang]{footmisc}

\begin{document}

\section{Regular Footnotes, Regular Spacing}
\lipsum[1]\footnote{Small footnote 1}
\lipsum[2] \footnote{Small footnote 2} 
\lipsum[3]\footnote{Small footnote 3}  
\lipsum[4]\footnote{Long footnote: \lipsum[5]}  

\newpage
\renewcommand\footnotesize{\tiny\par}%How to make the line height/spacing \tiny as well?
\section{Small Footnotes, but Regular Spacing}
\lipsum[1]\footnote{Small footnote 1}
\lipsum[2] \footnote{Small footnote 2} 
\lipsum[3]\footnote{Small footnote 1}  
\lipsum[4]\footnote{Long footnote \lipsum[5]\par}  

\end{document}  
3
  • Welcome to TeX.SE.
    – Mico
    Nov 29, 2019 at 21:37
  • I've taken the liberty of editing your posting and copying the externally stored material into the body of the query.
    – Mico
    Nov 29, 2019 at 21:41
  • Off-topic: the document class option 6pt has no effect when used with the book document class. The only fontsize-related options that the article, report, and book classes know about are 10pt (the default), 11pt, and 12pt.
    – Mico
    Nov 29, 2019 at 21:42

1 Answer 1

1

The package footmisc introduces the \footnotebaselineskip and sets it to the baselineskip in \footnotesize. Also \footnotesep should be changed.

\documentclass[twoside,a5paper]{book}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{newpxtext}
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage[para,hang]{footmisc}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@footnotetext}{\footnotesize}{\tiny}{}{}
\makeatother

\AtBeginDocument{%
  \begingroup\tiny
  \global\footnotesep=0.7\baselineskip
  \global\footnotebaselineskip\baselineskip
  \endgroup
}


\begin{document}

\section{Regular Footnotes, Regular Spacing}
\lipsum[1]\footnote{Small footnote 1}
\lipsum[2] \footnote{Small footnote 2}
\lipsum[3]\footnote{Small footnote 3}
\lipsum[4]\footnote{Long footnote: \lipsum[5]}

\end{document}  

enter image description here

I recommend newpxtext rather than palatino.

1
  • This worked! Thank you!
    – KC Kern
    Nov 29, 2019 at 22:31

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .