Questions tagged [plain-tex]
Plain TeX is Knuth's original default format for TeX documents.
825
questions
6
votes
3
answers
367
views
Tabular edge-to-edge dotted line: suppress overshoot, reduce dotsize, align dots to edges
I am trying to add dotted line from left-edge to right-edge of tabular after rows. There are 3-problems with my best attempt (code & screenshot below): 1) The length of the dotted line equals ...
- 1,246
3
votes
1
answer
264
views
\vadjust example on Tug.org
I was on Tug.org reading about some of TeX's primitives. I came across this example usage of \vadjust.
1. \def\strutA#1#2{\vrule height#1 depth#2 width0pt}
2. \def\ta#1%
3. {%
4. \strutA{8.5pt}{3....
- 149
1
vote
0
answers
96
views
How to also vertically align horizontally aligned image and text **while allowing page-breaks**?
This question is not asking for snippets of code.
It is asking for describing general practices with words.
In plain TeX I'd like to place an image/a rectangular box at the left of some piece of text ...
1
vote
2
answers
78
views
Justify box at the left margin while keeping \parindent glue/obeying \noindent if present
How to define a command which takes two arguments and from the first argument makes a new paragraph where the right margin of a box containing the second argument is justified at the left margin of ...
4
votes
4
answers
178
views
Iterating through a list and modifying elements one at a time to construct new list
Long time reader, first time poster.
I have a question about creating a macro that iterates through a list. I've read through some questions posted by other users, but all of those have something to ...
- 149
4
votes
1
answer
259
views
\lowering \leaders
I'm using \leaders to make a flexible width rule, with the statement \leaders 0pt plus 1fil\hrule, but I also want to put text above this line. \rlap{text}\leaders works fine, except that the text is ...
- 451
2
votes
1
answer
73
views
Question about Appendix E in TeXbook
There is something very strange with letter format example in Appendix E of TeXbook.
On p.253 it is said that \voffset should be increased by two lines of text if headlines are used. This explains why ...
- 6,903
2
votes
2
answers
223
views
linguistics-style trees in Metapost
I'm trying to find the best way to draw linguistics-style trees in a way which is as agnostic as possible to the variety of TeX which is used (LaTeX, ConTeXt, or plain ol' TeX). Most of the ways to ...
- 155
2
votes
2
answers
90
views
How to type theorem with automatic number by opmac
It is quite convenient to use the opmac in Plain TeX, but I still do not know how to type a mathematical theorem with automatic number. At this stage, I am only able to type a theorem manually as:
\...
- 123
0
votes
1
answer
97
views
Centering text in a valign without finetuned column width
Currently, I have the following valign output from this code (Plain TeX):
\def\make#1{{\hsize1.5in\vfil\centerline{\strut #1}\vfil\hrule}}
\valign{\hrule\make{#}&&\make{#}\cr\noalign{\vrule}
...
- 451
1
vote
0
answers
126
views
Why does the blackboard letters of the amsfont msbm have strange chardx values?
The font msbm which can be found under fonts/source/public/amsfonts/symbols in texlive has strange chardx width values set. If I run mf "\mode=localfont; input msbm10" I get the file msbm10....
- 249
3
votes
2
answers
96
views
How to put text above other words in plainTeX?
I need to put chord letters above lyrics in plainTeX. The only thing I've managed to do is to place desired chord letter in a \hbox, which than I moved up using '\raise 10 pt \hbox{C}', for instance. ...
- 31
3
votes
2
answers
253
views
Unicode input with plain LuaTeX
grün
gr\"un
\bye
yields
grn
grün
Is it possible to have the Unicode ü correctly rendered with
plain LuaTeX?
Would it also be possible with plain TeX and a METAFONT font?
Or would a METAFONT ...
- 3,296
3
votes
2
answers
219
views
Determining the "size" of a font
In Plain TeX (and really as a TeX primitive), \font\myfont=cmr8 at 10pt and \font\myfont\cmr10 both create fonts with "sizes" of 10pt. I want to be able to use this value to generate ...
- 451
0
votes
1
answer
38
views
Misplaced \noalign following two newlines
Why does a \noalign command produce a ! Misplaced \noalign when it follows at least two newlines.
For example, this code works :
\documentclass[10pt,letterpaper]{article}
\begin{document}
\halign{\...
- 70
6
votes
3
answers
338
views
Conditional \bye?
Editing a huge document is painfully slow. So one splits it into pieces and has a main document that does \input this and \input that. But: While I'm editing this.tex I want a \bye at the end to make ...
- 185
5
votes
1
answer
114
views
Different behaviour between different TeX engines
Consider this simple piece of code, which is part of a format file I found.
\catcode`\@=11
\ch@ck0\insc@unt\count
\bye
Why does it work fine with both tex and pdftex but issues an error message ...
- 2,539
4
votes
1
answer
152
views
Plain TeX and BibTeX on Overleaf
I'm compiling a Plain TeX project on Overleaf with the line
$latex = 'tex %O %S';
in the latexmkrc file. This makes most things work swimmingly, except BibTeX.
In a file called main.tex I have
\...
- 231
4
votes
1
answer
126
views
luatex hlist node shift direction seems incorrect, what is the cleanest way to achieve pdf object translations (displacement)?
From the description of hlist nodes in luatex manual, its field 'shift' seems to be a vertical shift. But when I change it using post_linebreak_filter, it adds horizontal shift to hlist. This overleaf ...
- 1,246
2
votes
1
answer
83
views
Is there a difference between \unvbox and \unvbox inside \output?
By writing an output routine for grid typesetting I discoverd an inconsistency. Look at sequence of spaces in \specialoutput and at the end of the document. The same sequence of spaces obeys the grid ...
- 1,138
0
votes
0
answers
113
views
vbox: splittable aligned equations? measuring true height after vsplit
I am learning low-level tex to write my own custom *latex macros. As an experiment I tried to put math equations (multiline or not) inside \vbox/ \hbox, measure their dimensions, and tried to split ...
- 1,246
3
votes
1
answer
307
views
Plain TeX magnifications
Can I use a magnification like \magnification=2700 in TeX? Or is it restricted to multiples of 500 like \magstephalf, \magstep1 and so forth?
- 31
0
votes
0
answers
82
views
LuaTeX's new_(node)inspection function
I was trying to test the piTeX macros on LuaTeX (required), but the base.ptxlua macro file complained about not finding a mysterious "nodeinspector" module, required to setup some french spacing. ...
- 4,147
1
vote
1
answer
148
views
Polar plot using pgfplots>polaraxis in Plain Tex
I use polaraxis a lot in the pgfplots package. It works well in LaTex. However, in Plain Tex I get an error like the following:
! Undefined control sequence. \pgfplots@environment@polaraxis@
[#1]->\...
- 37
1
vote
1
answer
128
views
LuaTeX node insert_before in left margin
After playing with the answer the question here, I noticed some differences in insert_after and insert_before. node.insert_after adds contents to right margin, node.insert_before doesn't seem to add ...
- 1,246
3
votes
1
answer
102
views
combining math accents in plainTeX vs LaTeX
When typesetting math accents, I have the impression that LaTeX does sometimes a better job than plain. My question is, what does LaTeX differently and whether there is an easy fix also for plain.
...
- 246
4
votes
3
answers
262
views
\vbox append: Insufficient line spacing between last line of first \vbox, and first line of second \vbox
I have two \vbox typeset in different parts of the document, and I intend to append them as if all their contents were typeset only once in one \vbox. So linespacing remains constant going from one \...
- 1,246
1
vote
1
answer
126
views
Plain tex margin note solution pulls text on preceding lines down (probably by the depth of strut)
For the plain tex margin note solution suggest by 'wipet' here, it seems like all the lines preceding, and including the line at which margin note is positioned are pulled down by some length (...
- 1,246
4
votes
1
answer
293
views
How to use tikzducks on Plain TeX / ConTeXt?
Is it possible to use/port tikzducks in Plain TeX or ConTeXt? As far as I know, tikzducks.sty has some LaTeX-isms as \begin .. \end environments, so it doesn't work outside LaTeX.
user193767
0
votes
0
answers
126
views
What application for plainTeX to choose?
I need an application like TeXmaker, for plainTeX, which will be convinient to use and will have text editor, command line interface and real-time viewer for pdf dokument all in one.
Maybe there is ...
- 31
2
votes
2
answers
189
views
How to replace a line in a file written by TeX' \write command
I try to write some content in an external file using TeX' \immediate\write command.
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\begin{document}
\newwrite\tempfile
\immediate\openout\tempfile=lists.tex
\immediate\...
- 199
2
votes
0
answers
537
views
Grid typesetting for equations
There were many discussions about grid typesetting in TeX. "Almost impossible"... I want to show that it is possible. I have found a way to make display math obey the grid. In contrast to packages ...
- 1,138
5
votes
3
answers
356
views
How to use the number of arguments in a macro?
I want to use a conditionally have a command produce two types of output in plain tex. I want to show a fraction style derivative with one mandatory option to give the independent variable, and a ...
- 61
4
votes
2
answers
399
views
Create a stack of items
In plain TeX, how do I create a stack of items?
I need to be able to push items to the end of the list, pop items and output the full list of items.
For example
\createlist{\mylist}
\push{\mylist}{...
- 1,737
5
votes
1
answer
305
views
What are use-cases for active characters?
The TikZ manual has this little gem of wisdom in its description of the \foreach command (emphasis mine):
In the easiest case, ‹variables› is a single TeX command like \x or \point. (If you want to ...
- 2,813
3
votes
1
answer
86
views
Additional hrule in halign after page break
I try to spread a halign over more than one page. I use \filbreak after every line.
\tracingonline=1
\advance\vsize by -15cm
\def\tablerule{\noalign{\hrule height .3mm\filbreak}}
\newcount\posno\...
- 579
1
vote
2
answers
94
views
Three identical copies of a page
I need to print one page three times. Is it possible, in plain TeX, to output two exact copies of the last page without incrementing the page number?
- 579
2
votes
1
answer
117
views
halign to <dimension> does not grow
I would like to set the width of a halign to 400pt:
\tracingonline=1
\def\tablerule{\noalign{\hrule}}
\newcount\posno\posno=1
\def\pos{\number\posno\global\advance\posno by 1}
\tabskip=3pt
\halign to ...
- 579
4
votes
1
answer
137
views
Different vsize for first page
Is it possible to alter the vsize for the first page?
I tried this:
\vsize=20cm
\def\pagebody{%
\ifnum\pageno=1%
\advance\vsize by -8cm%
\vskip13cm\vbox to \vsize{\boxmaxdepth=\maxdepth ...
- 579
0
votes
1
answer
110
views
How to reserve the right space for bigger headlines and footlines?
I set the headline and footline size to 2cm and reduced the \vsize by 4cm. But the footer does not fit the page.
\pdfpagewidth=10cm
\pdfpageheight=10cm
\hsize=\pdfpagewidth
\vsize=\pdfpageheight \...
- 579
0
votes
1
answer
617
views
How to vertically align two vboxes in a hbox at the top?
I tried this:
\hbox{
\vbox{
\hbox{1}
\hbox{2}
\hbox{3}
\vfill
}
\vbox{
\hbox{A}
\hbox{B}
\hbox{C}
\hbox{D}
\hbox{E}
}
}
\bye
But the first vbox does not ...
- 579
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to put a vbox in hbox?
I tried this but it does not work:
\vbox{
\hbox{
{top-left}
{top-right}
}
\hbox{
\vbox{
{bottom-left-top}
{bottom-left-down}
}
\vbox{
{bottom-right-top}
...
- 579
2
votes
1
answer
3k
views
What does it mean: You can't use `\hrule' here except with leaders
I have the following example, which draws a vertical line at the top of the paper:
\def\makeheadline{
\setbox0=\hbox to 0pt{\hskip-1in\hskip15cm \vrule depth 3cm \hss}
\ht0=0pt \dp0=0pt
\vbox ...
- 579
1
vote
0
answers
474
views
luaotfload | load : FATAL ERROR (output excerpt on the terminal after the lua run)
On a texlive2019 distribution, tex engine luatex, fonts used recognized by other engines (xetex, pdftex, csplain). Macros of OPmac - plaintex, no latex.
Sourcefile:
\input opmac
...
- 41
4
votes
2
answers
504
views
How can I make three horizontal dots on a letter in plain TeX
How can I make three horizontal dots on a letter in plain TeX?
- 161
3
votes
1
answer
156
views
Using plain TeX to get text flowing around included images
I'm looking to have a page full of text, with an embedded image aligned left, another embedded image aligned right, the two images not necessarily at the same height.
Here is an image showing the ...
2
votes
1
answer
221
views
What is the plain TeX equivalent of \rule in LaTeX?
For various reasons, I have to use TeX rather than LaTeX for a short document. I need to be able to insert a short blank underline within a paragraph. In LaTeX, this would be done easily with \rule{...
- 1,011
11
votes
1
answer
433
views
How to handle figures and images using MikTeX Plain TeX (not LaTeX) on a 35 year old document
I have a document (my Ph.D. dissertation) that I wrote in 1984-1985 time frame using Plain TeX (not LaTeX). I need to create a PDF out of it. Back in 1985, my figures were generated using Pascal ...
- 181
0
votes
1
answer
68
views
Compiling lextex example
I am trying to use the lextex macros. For this, I started by taking a look at the example file. I tried to follow the instructions and run
tex &plain example1.tex
but this gives the message
...
- 880
2
votes
1
answer
644
views
Verbatim write in Plain TeX
I am trying to write verbatim text into a file in Plain TeX. In LaTeX I could use the verbatim package. My goal is using Asymptote in Plain TeX. So I need something that works like \verbatim@start ...
- 1,138