\
baselineskip
per paragraph\
baselineskip
, which determines the space between lines, is
not (as one might hope) a property of a line, but of a paragraph. As
a result, in a 10pt
(nominal) document (with a default
\
baselineskip
of 12pt
), a single character with a larger
size, as:
{\Huge A}
will be squashed into the paragraph: TeX will make sure it doesn’t
scrape up against the line above, but won’t give it “room to
breathe”, as it does the text at standard size; that is, its size
(24.88pt
) is taken account of, but its \
baselineskip
(30pt
) isn’t. This problem may be solved by a strut:
the name comes from movable metal typography, and refers to a spacer
that held the boxes (that contained the metal character shapes) apart.
Every time you change font size, LaTeX redefines the command
\
strut
to provide the equivalent of a metal-type strut for the
size chosen. So for the example above, we would type
Paragraph text ... {\Huge A\strut} ... paragraph continues ...
This technique only works for such very short intrusions; if
you need several lines, you should convert your intrusion into an
quote
environment, since it’s not possible to provide a
\
strut
command for every line of the intrusion, in a sensible
way, so proceed by:
\begin{quote} \Huge A LENGTHY TEXT ... SHOUTING AT THE READER! \end{quote}
The contrary case:
Paragraph text ... {\footnotesize Extended interjection ... ... into the paragraph.} ... paragraph continues ...
will look wrong, since the 8pt
interjection will
end up set on the 12pt
\
baselineskip
of the paragraph,
rather than its preferred 8.5pt
. A \
strut
here is no
help: there is no such thing as a “negative strut”, that draws lines
together, so once more, one falls back on the quote
to
separate the interjection:
Paragraph text ... \begin{quote} \footnotesize Extended interjection ... ... into the paragraph. \end{quote} ... paragraph continues ...
The same effect is at work when we have something like:
Paragraph text ... ... paragraph body ends. {\footnotesize Comment on the paragraph.} Next paragraph starts...
which will set the body of the first paragraph on the constricted
\
baselineskip
of the \
footnotesize
comment. Solve this
problem by ending the initial paragraph before starting the comment:
Paragraph text ... ... paragraph body ends. \par\noindent {\footnotesize Comment on the paragraph.} Next paragraph starts...
(We suggest \
noindent
to make the comment look as if it is part
of the paragraph it discusses; omit \
noindent
if that is inappropriate.)
{\Large (Extended) IMPORTANT DETAILS ...} Main body of text...
Again, the problem is solved by inserting a paragraph marker in the text with a different size:
{\Large (Extended) IMPORTANT DETAILS ...\par} Main body of text...
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=baselinepar