1

I have something like this:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{p{\linewidth}}
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\hspace{1em}Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$. \\
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\hspace{1em}Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

It ultimately looks like: enter image description here

The first line breaks early and is justified because I guess it didn't want a line break in the middle of math mode. However, this causes "SOME LABEL" and "Lorem" to be misaligned with the row below.

How can I disable justification of "SOME LABEL" so that its horizontal edges always align across lines? Furthermore, how can I make the gap between it and the subsequent sentence consistent? I'd still like for the rest of the paragraph to be justified as usual.

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1 Answer 1

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1

You will get consistent spacing if you use \raggedright (either manually, with every cell in your table, or through an automated >{\raggedright} fashion thanks to array). But if you wish to keep the spacing for SOME LABEL fixed, set it in a box (either \mbox or \makebox). However, I almost feel you need to set a list (using description, for example).

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{array,enumitem}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{} p{\linewidth} @{}}
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$. \\
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{tabular}

\medskip

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{} p{\linewidth} @{}}
  \mbox{\textit{SOME LABEL}}\quad Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$. \\
  \mbox{\textit{SOME LABEL}}\quad Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{tabular}

\medskip

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{} p{\linewidth} @{}}
  \raggedright
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$. \\
  \raggedright
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{tabular}

\medskip

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{} >{\raggedright}p{\linewidth} @{}}
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$. \\
  \textit{SOME LABEL}\quad Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{tabular}

\medskip

\begin{description}[font=\normalfont\itshape]
  \item[SOME LABEL]
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$.
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit $x_1 \ldots x_n$.
  
  \item[SOME LABEL]
  Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
  Nullam nec mi et neque pharetra sollicitudin.
\end{description}

\end{document}
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4
  • In practice, the table needs another column to the left, so I don't think a list would work. It'd be a nice solution otherwise. I can't get \raggedright to work with 2 columns: \begin{tabular}{p{0.5\linewidth} p{0.5\linewidth}}a & \raggedright b \\ c & \raggedright d\end{tabular} yields "Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr." Apologies for not mentioning the 2nd column; I figured it wouldn't change the solution since misalignment occurs even outside a table.
    – bgfvdu3w
    Feb 11, 2022 at 6:47
  • @bgfvdu3w: Try with \raggedright\arraybackslash. And note that your table width will exceed \linewidth, even if you think that two 0.5\linewidth columns will fit; there are \tabcolseps around every column.
    – Werner ♦
    Feb 11, 2022 at 7:06
  • That worked! Good call on the width; I excluded the @{} in an attempt to make the inline code more readable. Why did you mention \mbox? "SOME LABEL" seems to have fixed spacing without it.
    – bgfvdu3w
    Feb 11, 2022 at 7:19
  • @bgfvdu3w: ...when you use \raggedright. Under normal justification \mbox will ensure the "original spacing" is preserved.
    – Werner ♦
    Feb 11, 2022 at 12:06

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