Single-width "10" for card game presentation

Question

I play and teach bridge, and the shape of hands is very important. For instance:

KJ854
Q9842
8
A3

is easy to recognize as equal-length majors (top two rows). But then there's the ten.

Various style guides have options for this card; all of which are designed to minimize the "shape" problem. Either use spaces:

K J 10 8 5
Q 9 8 4 2
8
A 10

(but that doesn't work completely - the spades still look longer than the hearts, just not quite as bad as KJ1085 Q9842) or use "T" for ten:

KJT85
Q9842
8
AT

(but the card has "10" on it, not "T", and it's hard to read!)

In unicode there are several characters that are single-character-width 10, but never naked (10-in-circle, 10-as-playing-card, 10-full-stop, ...) Is there a native (i.e. normal font) or simple way in LaTeX to get a single-width "10" element?

Answer 1

You can use

\makebox[2em]{1}...\makebox[2em]{9}...\makebox[2em]{10}...\makebox[2em]{K}

and they will all be 2em wide, choose whatever width works best for the font you are using.

Here are three versions, a spacy version with 2em width and 10 normally spaced and a tighter version using 1em spacing and 10 squeezed slightly and a ver y tight version.

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\makebox[2em]{1}\makebox[2em]{9}\makebox[2em]{10}\makebox[2em]{K}

\makebox[2em]{10}\makebox[2em]{J}\makebox[2em]{Q}\makebox[2em]{K}


\bigskip


\makebox[1em]{1}\makebox[1em]{9}\makebox[1em]{1\kern-.1em0}\makebox[1em]{K}

\makebox[1em]{1\kern-.1em0}\makebox[1em]{J}\makebox[1em]{Q}\makebox[1em]{K}


\bigskip


\makebox[.8em]{1}\makebox[.8em]{9}\makebox[.8em]{1\kern-.16em0}\makebox[.8em]{K}

\makebox[.8em]{1\kern-.16em0}\makebox[.8em]{J}\makebox[.8em]{Q}\makebox[.8em]{K}

\end{document}

---

Once you have decided the tweaks you want, you can abstract that into a command, something like

\documentclass{article}

\def\tmpx{10}
\newcommand\Cd[1]{%
  \makebox[.8em]{\def\tmp{#1}%
   \ifx\tmp\tmpx
     \kern-.05em1\kern-.12em0%  10
   \else
    #1% not 10
   \fi}}

\begin{document}

\Cd{1}\Cd{9}\Cd{10}\Cd{K}

\Cd{10}\Cd{J}\Cd{Q}\Cd{K}

\end{document}

You could also test for other letters, Q could perhaps have a slight adjustment to the left as well.

Answer 2

One can use \newcommand{\T}{\kern-.3em 10},

If 1 and 0 need to be closer set kerning between them

\newcommand{\T}{\kern-.2em 1\kern-.2em 0}

with tabbing each tab can be define what length of spacing you want between numbers.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Liberation Sans}
\setmonofont[Ligatures=TeX]{Liberation Mono}

\usepackage{xcolor}
\newcommand{\Heart}{\textcolor{red}{♥}}
\newcommand{\Spade}{♠}
\newcommand{\Club}{♣}
\newcommand{\Diamant}{\textcolor{red}{♦}}
\newcommand{\T}{\kern-.3em 10}
\begin{document}

{\Huge\ttfamily
\begin{tabbing}
\hspace{15mm} \= \hspace{15mm} \= \hspace{15mm} \= \hspace{15mm} \= \hspace{15mm} \= \kill
\> K \> J \> \T \> 8 \> 5 \\
\> Q \> 9 \> 8 \> 4 \> 2 \\
\> 8 \\
\> A \> \T \\
\end{tabbing}%
}
\end{document}

If one adds ♠♥♦♣ signs with font that support them like Liberation Mono

Answer 3

There is also the playing cards Unicode block. This is supported by various fonts, such as DejaVu Sans (Linux), Segoe UI Symbol (Windows), Symbola (cross-platform). You can enter the symbols directly or define macros to make it easier to enter a symbol.

MWE (compile with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{DejaVu Sans}
\def\acl{🃑}\def\iiicl{🃓} % macros to make entering easier
\begin{document}
\noindent Example:\\
🂮🂫🂪🂨🂥\\ % or enter symbols directly
\color{red}
🂽🂹🂴🂲\\
🃈\\
\color{black}
\acl\iiicl\\
\end{document}

Result: